B
enzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn a commission from the links below. Picture discovering your financial advisor has been charged with fraud, only to learn a portion of the stolen funds was yours. That was the reality for actors Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon after Bernie Madoff’s 2008 arrest. Although the couple suffered a reported $30 million loss, their real‑estate holdings helped them recover.

    Madoff, once the most coveted adviser among the wealthy, delivered returns that seemed too good to be true—until the truth emerged. He siphoned roughly $65 billion from investors in what is considered the largest Ponzi scheme ever. Bacon and Sedgwick, married since 1988, had a large portion of their portfolio in Madoff’s fund. Bacon later reflected, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” and noted that the experience made him more cautious rather than jaded.

    The couple’s investments were diversified: Madoff was a stock trader, so their real‑estate portfolio remained untouched. Bacon’s 40‑acre farm in Sharon, Connecticut, purchased in 1983, exemplifies this diversification. At that time, the median home price in the Northeast was $82,200; today, the average value in Sharon is $669,980, indicating the farm’s worth has surged into the millions.

    Despite the shock, Bacon and Sedgwick rebuilt their wealth through property, demonstrating resilience after the collapse of Madoff’s empire.