Life as Bacon and Sedgwick knew it came crashing down in 2009 when their involvement in the now-infamous Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme (the largest known Ponzi scheme in history) cost them up to $30 million (according to an estimate by StyleCaster)– as Bacon himself said last year on the SmartLess podcast, it was “most of our money”.
They were just two of many celebrities and high profile figures who were scammed after investing in Madoff’s “too good to be true” financial schemes.
“There’s obvious life lessons there. You know, if something is too good to be true, it’s too good to be true,” Bacon told hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. “When something like that happens, you know, you look at each other, then you go, ‘Well, that sucks. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work,’ you know?”
Despite the setback, 65-year-old Bacon and 58-year-old Sedgwick turned adversity into an opportunity for reflection, focusing on the positives. “We’ve made it this far, our kids are healthy, we’re healthy, you know? Let’s look at what we have that’s good,” he reflected on the October, 2022 podcast.
So, with their tails between their legs, Bacon and Sedgwick retreated from the limelight and from Tinseltown in general, finding solace and contentment on a cozy Connecticut farm.
Gradually, the actors both shared snippets of their daily lives on social media, with Sedgwick posting so many videos of her and their goats to TikTok that people now recognize her for it, rather than her acting roles!
“People were like, ’We love you singing with the goats.’ Kevin and I are like, ’Great, have you seen our movies or TV shows?’ But it makes people happy,” the actress and producer told People in March this year.
Interestingly, Bacon and Sedgwick aren’t the only celebs drawn to farm life. In fact, famed actress Jennifer Garner decided to buy back the farm her mother grew up on and transform it into an organic produce project for baby food.