Kevin Bacon Admits He Lost 'Most' of His Net Worth to Bernie Madoff's 'Too Good to Be True' Ponzi Scheme The actor detailed his foot-loss during an episode of the "SmartLess" podcast.
By Sam Silverman •
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Actor Kevin Bacon reminded fans this week that celebrities make financial mistakes, too, after detailing how he lost a chunk of his fortune to Bernie Madoff's infamous Ponzi scheme.
While speaking on Monday's episode of the "SmartLess" podcast, Bacon dove into the great loss that he and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, suffered to one of the largest financial fraud scams in U.S. history.
"We had most of our money in Madoff," Bacon said to hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. "There's obvious life lessons there – if something is too good to be true, it's too good to be true."
We sizzle up some @KevinBacon on this week's ep of our little pea pod. This is #SmartLess. @SmartLess @SeanHayes @batemanjason @arnettwill
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Although Bacon didn't reveal an exact figure, he said his family was able to recover "a portion of some money back."
The Madoff Victim Fund has returned more than $4 billion to over 40,000 victims who lost money to the disgraced businessman, according to its website. Madoff, who died in 2021, was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison on a variety of financial charges.
Despite claiming he lost a lot of money, Bacon and his wife have a reported net worth of $45 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com.
"I think people will be not happy to hear me whining about money," Bacon said on the podcast. "Certainly, you get angry and stuff, but I have to say, there were a lot of people who were much worse off than we were – old people, people whose retirement funds were completely decimated. So there's always going to be somebody that's going to have it a lot worse than you."
This isn't the first time Bacon admitted he suffered at the hands of Madoff. Following reports that the actor's family lost "millions" to the scheme in 2009, he said he didn't want to distract from the "real victims" while speaking to The Guardian in 2017. "I think there's a good cautionary tale there, to be cognizant of what's happening with your money," he added at the time.
In addition to Bacon, several other Hollywood celebrities lost big to Madoff's scheme, including director Steven Spielberg, actor John Malkovitch and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.
