Madoff suicide pact: Wife says she and Bernard took pills

In an interview with "60 Minutes," Ruth Madoff says that she and her husband Bernard Madoff attempted suicide together, after his massive con was made public.

"I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening," Ruth Madoff said. "We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said '…I just can't go on anymore.'"

Madoff said the event occurred on Christmas Eve, and that the couple took pills, including Ambien and possibly Klonopin.

"I took what we had, he took more," she said.

But the pills did not kill the Madoffs. 

"We took pills and woke up the next day….It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up," she said.

A portion of the interview will air Wednesday night on the CBS Evening News, and the full story will run Sunday on "60 Minutes." CBS says the interview is the first that Ruth Madoff has given about her husband's crimes. 

Earlier this month, ABC News' "20/20" program broadcast an interview with Stephanie Madoff-Mack, whose husband Mark Madoff, son of Bernie and Ruth, committed suicide in the wake of his father's $50 billion Ponzi scheme. 

"I would tell him that I hold him fully responsible for killing my husband… And I'd spit in his face," Madoff-Mack said of her father-in-law.