Madoff's Wife Finally Dumps Him

Ruth Madoff has apparently left her husband — DTMFA, if you will — imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, according to tabloid reports of interviews with Madoff biographer and New York Times reporter Diana Henriques.

Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Henriques, whose book was released Wednesday, is being quoted in British tabloids saying, “Ruth has not seen Bernie since [their son] Mark’s suicide [in December 2010] and I think the remnants of the family will now pull together. Ruth visiting him in prison was a major impediment to her being reconciled with them.” (She isn’t quoted actually saying they have separated, so take it with a grain of salt, but the not visiting for six months thing has to mean something.)

Madoff, who as a young woman bore an inexplicable resemblance to Paris Hilton, dated Bernie in high school, and one friend told New York magazine in 2009, “I never knew Ruth without Bernie; it’s like bacon and eggs.” After world learned of her husband’s fraud — of which Ruth always claimed ignorance — she was “one of the most reviled figures in New York,” wrote Sheelah Kolhatkar in that piece.

During Bernie’s final court appearance, Ruth was invoked repeatedly by his victims, almost as if she’d forced him to steal from them. “It pains me so much to remember my husband, a fine physician, getting up in the middle of the night and going into the hospital … so that Bernie Madoff could buy his wife a Cartier watch,” seethed one. “Your wife rightfully so has been vilified and shunned by her friends in the community … You have a marriage made in hell,” said another. The Internet mobs have been almost rabid in their treatment of her. “Time to burn this witch,” reads a typical comment….Something about the way she carried herself—her highlighted hair, the upturned collar and petite physique—played into the stereotype of the pampered, free-spending wife.

What’s the archetype for the pampered wife who finally breaks free after remaining loyal? And would said wife on a new journey in life be played by Diane Keaton or Diane Lane?

Madoff Fraudster Dropped By Wife [Express]
Wife Dumps Ruth-Less Madoff [NYP]
Related: Poor Ruth [NYM]