A woman who has written a book detailing her alleged affair with disgraced financier Bernie Madoff says she isn't a gold digger, but rather a desperate woman trying to recoup some of her family's lost life savings.
Sheryl Weinstein claims she had a relationship with Madoff for 20 years.
Her tell-all book "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie and Me" includes claims about everything from the size of his genitals to the fact he blinked a lot and earned the nickname "Winky Dink."
But Weinstein, who has been married for 37 years, told CTV's Canada AM the book -- the contents of which Madoff's lawyer's have denied -- isn't a cash-grab or a bid for publicity.
When Madoff's Ponzi scheme collapsed, Weinstein said, the family's entire life savings evaporated and she became desperate.
"My responsibility in my family was finance, investing and planning for our future. And when this happened the amount of guilt I felt was overwhelming. It threw me in a very deep depression," she said.
"I had to start figuring out how to go on, how to pay the bills. I had no jewelry to sell, I had no art work to sell... the only thing I had to sell was my story and that's when it started to occur to me that I would write a story and try to at least help my family financially."
Weinstein, who delivered a victim impact statement at Madoff's trial and called him "the lowest of the low" outside the courthouse, said she met Madoff about 20 years ago. The two became friends, and the relationship remained platonic for some time.
About five years in the friendship became sexual, and they began an affair that lasted between a year and a year-and-a-half, she says.
After the affair ended, she and Madoff remained friends until his scheme famously collapsed late last year, erasing millions that belonged to Madoff's trusting investors.
It remained a secret until about a month after the story broke, when Weinstein decided to tell her husband about the affair.
"It was difficult for him," she said. "He wasn't happy. After losing all our money, now I have to tell him this. It wasn't exactly making his day but he understood what I was trying to accomplish."
The couple's grown son, who was once an intern with Madoff, also had difficulty with the news, but Weinstein said he understood her motivation was only to help support her family.
Weinstein said the family's friends have also come alongside of them through their financial struggles, and the decision to publish the book.
"They know we're not publicity seekers or people cashing in on something, we're just trying to really survive."
