that does it for us. thanks for watching. "piers morgan live" starts now. this is "piers morgan live." welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. tonight the movie that's raunchy, raw and some people say crosses the line. >> 1, 2, 3! >> stop, okay? >> safety zblifirst. >> safety is first. >> i don't want to get a bad reputation. >> martin scorsese's "wolf of wall street". i'll talk to the man who was the inspiration for leo dicaprio's character. >> you just tried to bribe a federal officer. >> no, no.

according to the u.s. criminal code there needs to be an exact dollar figure for the exchange of services. that would not hold up in a court of law. no, no, no. that's the truth. >> yes, the real-life wolf of wall street, jordan belfort, is here tonight live and unleashed. hollywood has made him into a big story. it doesn't get much better than watching leo dicaprio surely play you on the big screen. but in real life jordan belfort use a pump and dump to scam invests and blew money on women and drugs and cars. and ended up in federal prison for money laundering. he joins me now exclusively. you're like one of the most notorious people in the entire world, jordan belfort. i have had calls from all over the world in the last 24 hours since we announced this. you don't give intervuts, certainly not for a long time. you haven't given them for this movie until now. >> right. >> now you've let yourself loose here for the next hour. how do you feel about this

extraordinary mayhem erupting around you, your story, this movie? >> well, it's a bit surreal for sure. because i think controversial more than notorious. and i chose not to give any interviews for awhile. i think i wanted the movie to basically play. i think the studio wanted that as well. i thought this would be a good place to sort of get the message out. i'm sure people have questions, you have questions. >> what is the real message you want to get out? >> well, i guess for me, it's important that the movie's viewed the right way as a cautionary tale. i know there's an issue about people glamourizing what happened. i think kerry winter said it best when he was interviewed. if you look at this movie and walk away thinking this is how you want to live your life you have a screw loose. >> people said that about wall street and gordon gecko. and even you admit that gordon gekko became this weird inspiration. to go and be a gordon gekko.

people will look at jordan belfort's life and it is glamorous for a large part of it. you don't see the human side of the victims. we're going to come to that later. there is a danger all this movie will do is create a lot of the old jordan belforts, not the guy you now are but even the old one even you admit was a really bad guy. >> i don't think that is going to happen. i'll tell you why. there's a fundamental difference between the gordon gekko and myself. gordon was a fictionalized character and they never saw his downfall. at end of the movie he got taped and they push his button and that's that. you don't find out the wall street 2 what happened to gordon gekko. this is clear i lost everything. my story is known throughout the world iened up in jail. it was a disaster personally, professionally. and i think that being said, though, i think there's a lot of great things to glean from the movie. i think that hopefully when

people see this they can say there are things that are inspiring, starting from nothing, stuff with selling and motivation. i think that does inspire. it should move people. but they need to get anytiit in context if you're not doing it with honesty and integrity it's a disaster. >> first one is leo dicaprio in character as jordan belfort from the movie talking about you. >> my name is jordan belfort. the year i turned 26 i made $49 million, which really pissed my off because it was 3 shy of a million a week. >> was all this legal? absolutely not. >> the second clip this is leo dicaprio talking about the real you. so not from the movie but just a proper interview with leo talking about what he thinks about you personally. >> i've been in his company many times. but there is nothing quite like jordan's public speaking and his ability to train and empower young entrepreneurs. jordan stands as a shining

example of the transformative qualities of ambition and hard work. and in that regard, he's a true motivator. >> i suppose my first question would be, pretty extraordinary, right? there's you. you had it all. you lost it all. you're down. everything's gone. now you've got the hottest movie star in the world paying you that kind of compliment in a piece he wanted out there for people to see. what does it make you feel like to see decap de cap rio do that? >> it was a testament to his character speaking about my new life and not my whole life in that clip. i think originally when leo saw this project he wanted to get it on screen. he said this publicly. because it represented the mistakes that i made, the attitude i had at that time, representing a lot of what really went wrong ultimately many years later with wall street. nothing was important to him. and i think that what impressed leo about my new life so much is he saw me really made this radical turn.

and i think that moved him. and i was really proud and shocked that he did that. >> how much time did you spend with leo dicaprio? >> i spent a lot. >> like what? >> countless hours. hundreds of hours. >> hundreds of hours in his company. >> probably. 100 plus hours. >> how did you find him and how did he find you when you were just interacting together? >> either by telephone in my house or his house or out somewhere. we just literally -- one thing i don't think people realize about leo, his excellence is not by -- he strives for it. he works really really hard. i think he was so determined to suck every bit of information from me, any stuff that wasn't in the book, and sort of what was on my mind, just really try -- i guess you don't realize how much he's looking at you. when i saw it on screen i was like, oh, my god. i thought it was mind boggling to see. >> i can tell already the voice is pretty well perfect. >> amazing. >> he got you. you don't look massively dissimilar to i guess in your younger days to how he is in the

movie. so when you watched the movie, what did you feel about the reality? because only you would know, really. >> you know, it was shocking. when i first saw the movie with my fiancee the first time. we were speechless afterwards. >> in a good or bad way? >> in a good way. i mean i guess for me it's different. when the audience sees it i think they're speechless because they're sensory overload. for me i had come to terms with my old life. i wrote this book. that was a cathartic experience for me. but to see it on film like that with someone that did such a good job, i found myself sweating at certain points when some of the cocaine was being snorted. i got all the sympathetic reactions to it. >> all that was true, right? i remember reading i think a fbi guy who was investigating said the thing about jordan belfort, it's all true. let's go through some of the things in the movie. i love the movie. if you haven't seen it regardless of the moral issues

it raises it's a brilliant movie. incredibly entertaining, brilliantly made. >> scorsese. >> matthew mcconaughey, leo dicaprio, jonah hill, all terrific. let's go through some of the stories. a female employee shaved her head for $10,000 in front of the baying mob of staff. true? >> true. to get breast implants. it was even worse. the whole idea -- >> to get breast implants she shaved her head for 10,000. >> yes. i guess the philosophy was her hair would grow back and it would all be perfect in six months. amazing the rationalization. it's interesting you brought that scene up. i think that was a scene that it personally disturbed me and probably disturb add lot of people when you see it. >> did it at the time disturb you or were you too high? >> it wasn't i was so high. it started we shaved a guy's head for $10,000. that was really fun. within a year, head shaving was $50. like the price went down. >> $50? >> you become numb. that's what happened with insanity and all this sort of stuff you do.

what seems amazing at first becomes commonplace after awhile. you don't lose your soul all at once. you lose it a little bit at a time incrementally. when i lost my ethical way it did not start off, i'm sure we'll get to that later. it's sort of like tiny imperceptible steps over the line. each time you do it your line of morality moves a bit. before long you're doing things you thought you would never normally do. day one shave a guy's head, $10,000. he needed the money. it all made sense. be fun a crew cut, right? then a year later flash forward and it's completely off the rails. >> dwarfs being thrown onto velcro dart board. >> right. >> did that happen? >> i wasn't there at the time. so i didn't throw -- >> but you heard it happened. >> after i left, yes. >> what do you think about that? >> i don't think it's appropriate for sure. i mean, obviously i think it would be humorous to watch it as an outside in a very bizarre sort of way. i don't think it's the sort of humor you want to -- let's just say i don't endorse the

practice. >> your number two portrayed in the movie by jonah hill ate a live goldfish that belonged to the film employee. did that happen? >> it happened. >> you saw him do that? >> yeah. and the thing with that is that his character was heavily fictionalized. >> the real life guy is who really? >> oh, it's a guy named danny. and in the movie he represents a bunch of different characters. so in fairness to danny -- >> did danny -- >> he ate the goldfish, yes. he's publicly admitted that. >> when you watched that happening, kind of nadir of excess, isn't it? >> yes. these things do happen on wall street. they just do. insanity happens. >> are they far the of the folklore, the legend, the kind of chest beating? again gordon gekko? is that what it's about really? about who can go the furthest? >> i think that sort of behavior isn't just endemic to wall street. i think it's endemic to large groups of men who are drinking

or doing any sort of substances or in a frat house or wherever it might be where people it's sort of like the herd mentality, crowd mentality. people individually would never do these things. you put 50,100 in one spot and all of a sudden the rules of behavior start to change. >> did you have a chimpanzee in the office handing out mail? >> not mail. people had pets in the office. there was an iguana, rattlesnake, boa constrictor -- >> you're saying this like this is all perfectly normal. if i came into my cnn office one day with an iguana, rattlesnake and chimpanzee i would be frog marched out of there high-speed. you're kind of thinking this is perfectly normal. >> i heard some rumors they have stuff in silicon valley that tho work. for them free spirit so they can be creative. here we took it in a different direction. don't think the outcome was as healthy as silicon valley. >> whats with the most appalling thing you ever saw? >> i can't say it on television.

it happened at my bachelor party. i wrote this scene -- the scene of the bachelor party -- >> so bad you can't even tell me? >> not on air. >> can you give me a clue? >> it had to do with an act of sexual depravity that was so depraved that even i myself was speechless. there was about 100 people watching when it happened. it was the most disgusting thing i've ever seen in my life. and at the time i think there was probably 50 prostitutes there. they said it was the most disgusting thing they've they've ever seen it was pretty raunchy. >> let's take a break so you can tell me what happened and then i'll decide if we can put it on air. >> you can't. it says here that a woman's sex drive

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the real story of the wolf of wall street may be even more over the top than the movie version. back with me now is jordan belfort, spent nearly two years behind bars for money laundering. getting tweets pouring in. good, bad, ugly. someone here jake kraus, tweet me @piersmorgan. by the look of his face he looks like he really misses his old life. do you? >> no. listen, again, it's obviously some aspects of the camaraderie in the early years when stratton first started year one, it was pure, it was beautiful. i invented a system for training salesmen. it was legit. we were trying to make our clients money. that was great and i loved that. then it spiralled out of control. and everything that happened after that i do not miss. especially the drugs. i've been sober for 17 years

now. and i almost died because of the addiction. so i guess sometimes, i think i have a tendency to smile sometimes when i'm embarrassed. i think people might mistake that for me being happy about it. i don't miss that life. >> there's a few saying he looks like he's glorying in what happened. >> i'm not glorying for sure. >> how would you categoryize it? >> an embarrassment and putting on a brave face maybe. >> do you have shame about it? do you feel shame? >> shame is the wrong word. i think you go through these different transitions of guilt and shame. i'm in a stage now of remorse, which is really the active form of that where i'm actually doing things right now to make up for any past transgressions that i've made. guilt is a self-serving emotion. i feel guilty. you roll up and die. verse is learning from your mistakes and trying to make them life and so forth. >> let's go back to 1991 home video made at a house party in the hamptons at the kind of height of your behavior then.

>> i make one more guarantee. six months from now, what you're doing right now is going to be nothing again, okay? that's the bottom line. 200, doing 400. guys doing 400 will be doing 600 many there's still going to be one guy that's going to break that million dollar mark for the month. >> i want to go back to the very early days. >> sure. >> when was it you realized you had this ability to sell? >> the first time it really started in the meat business. when i got out of -- i went to dental school, was there for a day and i dropped out. i realized the dean said the golden age of dentistry is over. then i left. my mom wanted me to be a doctor. that's how that happened. >> day one of dental school you bailed. >> i bailed. >> a parentally a guy said you couldn't get rich doing it. >> i always wanted to be rich. i did. i had the desire. i was a hard-working kid. from the paper route at the age of eight, did magic shows when i was 12, shovelled driveways

after snow storms. i hit it big for the first time when i was 16 selling icees on the beach. i made a lot of money. put myself through college that way. my parents were really supportive of me. i went to dental school, dropped out. i answered an ad for selling meat and sea food door-to-door. that was a door-to-door sales job. the first day i broke the company record. something just came over me. i started speaking, the words just flowed and i knew what to say. then i opened up my own business within a month after that and knowing how to train salesmen. trained 26 salesmen and 26 trucks. i made every mistake a young entrepreneur could make. i overexpanded, was undercapitalized and was out of my business in a year and a half. from there i got down to wall street. >> you were bankrupt. >> yes. >> did it teach you anything? >> i learned everything i think i know about business stems from the first disastrous mistakes i made. because you learn a lot more from your mistakes in life than you do from your successes. >> people have said about you, people who know their stuff in wall street and so on, have said

if you had stayed legitimate the entire time, you'd have been a billionaire now. because you were such a brilliant salesman and such a brilliant motivator. and were able to run a great team. that had you just not been so unethical and breaking the law all the time you would have been everything you'd ever wanted to be. >> they're very smart people. they're 100% right. that's the shame of it all. i do a lot of speeches at colleges, charity work. and i always say to kids that are going into the workplace that the biggest mistake that i made is not delaying my own gratification. it was a character flaw that i had as a kid. i wanted everything tomorrow. and a lot of kids are like that. and because of that, i went for the short-term bucks. and very often in business you can make a little bit of extra money by being unethical. but it doesn't last. you're building a foundation on sand. and it collapsed because of that. if i would have done it just as you said, i'd probably be worth 10, $20 billion right now. that's for sure. >> you went down to wall street. on your very first day in 1987,

literally the first day you're there, the company that you're working for goes bust in the great crash which happened that day. >> right. okay, i went down there, it's even worse than that. i went down there and i trained for six months while the market was soaring to the very top. >> you're thinking this is easy. >> i'm like this is it. my first day as a broker, october 19, 1987. just like that, it's black monday and it's over. and then when the market crashed it's like every hope and dream i had was dashed. i thought i was over. i went home that night, it was my first wife. for about one day i was paralyzed. i couldn't even move. i was so upset about it. i picked up the help wanted section and stumbled upon an ad for a brokerage firm in long island. >> hold it there. we'll take a short break. you end up going there. this is the pump and dump operation it was to become. a lot of victims. so we may get tough with you after the break, jordan belfort. >> i deserve it probably. honestly? i wanted a smartphone that shoots great video.

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>> a pivotal moment for martin scorsese's "wolf of wall street." back with me now the man who lived the real story, jordan belfort. he talked a good game but it went crashing down when he went to prison for pump and dump schemes. you go to this place on long island. selling little penny stocks. pretty small as we see in the movie dodgy looking operation certainly compared to what you had come from in wall street. day one it all goes brilliantly. what do you realize in that moment? >> one of the important distinctions i think is for people to know here, especially young people, is that in the movie when i walk into the firm and i get my first look at it and i sit down i think spike jones plays the manager. and i ask him a question. i say is this all legitimate? and he says to me, well, you know. in truth he said, of course it's legitimate. look at the license on the wall. we're a part of the nesd. and that's a danger that every kid that goes into the workforce faces.

and one of the things i always say to colleges is that just because someone is out there, they're in a company and they have a license on the wall, you have to use your own gut check for say is this happening? >> in the movie, you see very quickly what you do. and you're spinning a brilliant line in terms of its ability to be successful brilliant. but not brilliant for the guy on the other end of the phone who's being seduced into this deal. so very quickly in the movie, dicaprio playing you crosses that ethical boundary. is that what happened in real life? >> not quite, no. i had no idea. i thought it was 100% legitimate. 100%. >> the kind of pump and dump scheme, you basically inflate these penny stocks to be something they're not in reality. people pump in loads of cash, then it all gets dumped and they lose their money. >> right. but the brokers aren't really in on that. when i walked in my first day, i came from a big firm. it was all legitimate. now it's lower priced stock. to me i'm on the phone pitching, i'm like i'm just selling another stock. i had no idea it was anything

wrong wit it at all. >> when did you realize it wasn't what it seemed? >> i would say about a month in. i totally got what was going on. >> is that the ethical moment for you when you crossed the line? >> it was -- there was a series of moments. that was the first moment where i allowed greed to get the best of me. because i immediately said to myself, in the movie my wife said aren't you tired of losing -- my first wife. but in reality i said that to her. i'm sick and tired. i can't take this anymore. part of the reason why i opened up my own firm i thought i could do a better job at it, get legitimate companies and do a whole different thing. that was one of the reasons i opened up my own firm. when it became this big firm and you were making millions and millions, how much of it do you think, looking back on it -- be completely honest here because you have been about many things -- how much of it was legal and how much of it was illegal? >> i would say 90% was legal in terms of the day-to-day

operation. 95 probably. but the 5% was incredibly destructive and disgusting and poisoned everything else. >> and you knew that was all happening. >> absolutely. yes. not in the beginning. but again, it didn't happen all at once. >> what happened? here's the fascinating thing about you. you had good parents who were very supportive. >> yes. >> all in your earlier life, you're an entrepreneur, buzzing around, selling papers, selling ice creams. you're on the beach. you're doing stuff. selling meat and stuff. and it's all going great. and you're doing it all legitimately. and you come from good family and good background. there's nothing there that suggests criminality. >> right. >> what happened to jordan belfort? why did you become this arch criminal? >> well, i think that what happened was that when you get into this section of wall street, it's very easy to start rationalizing what you're doing. i rationalized each of my actions one step at a time. and then one rationalization allows you to cross a line. and then you pull back doing things right again.

but your line of morality has moved. next time you cross it it's a bit further and further. you could just say had how did the gfc happen, all the people that went to ivy league schools, how did people who have degrees in economics and stamping documents. >> >> what's the easy answer? >> they didn't lose their soul all at once. a little bit here, a little push there. >> did you lose your soul completely? >> you know, i think it's hard to say. because i think that i got to a point in my life where i was probably about as awful of a person as i was capable of being and still walking around. >> you were ordered to pay $110.4 million to a victim compensation fund. as of now you've paid back how much? >> i think about 12. >> about 12 million. do you have any expectation or hope you'll ever be able to pay them back? >> yeah. i think this movie for that is an amazing thing. i'm giving 100% of all the profits from the movie and both

books. and the books -- >> you are compelled to give, unless i'm wrong, 50% of all your gross earnings straight to pay them back. >> no. >> is that not right? >> no. >> was it of the case? >> when i was on probation. >> now you're off probation you're no longer compelled to legally. >> not legally. >> are you continuing to do that? >> i'm giving 100% of both books, everything, and the movie. and you can't say how much it's going to be. who knows how many copies a book will sell in 15, 20 years. but i think it will be many, many millions of dollars. i'm really happy about that. >> when i asked you earlier about shame, you sort of dodged that. you said you didn't really feel ashamed. but there are real people, many many people, thousands, tens of thousands, who lost a lot of money if not everything to your company and to you. >> that's not true, though. >> why is that not true? >> because we were calling rich people. >> let's go through some of them. peter springsteel, an architect am mystic, connecticut. he lost half his life savings. dr. alfred vet who lost

$250,000. one victim called bob sheering reportedly lost $130,000. he told the telegraph newspaper this. his depiction of the movie is annoying and disturbing because it makes him into a more mythical figure and skips reality of what he was about. what he was about was harming people financially. >> i think the movie clearly paints that picture. >> but that's accurate, isn't it? >> what? >> that you were deliberately -- >> i'm the first person to admit that. you said 1993. what did i say? i said yeah. that year was -- you picked probably the highlight of what i consider myself to be the most depraved year of my life. >> that's why i'm surprised you would then say you don't think thousands of people lost their money. >> you said life savings. >> well, some of them did, right? >> i don't know anyone who lost their life savings. again i'm not saying that makes it right. but let's just be accurate here. >> how do you feel about these people losing a lot of money? >> i think it's awful, terrible. >> having their cases turned upside down? >> i think it's terrible. >> on a human level have you

ever met any of them? i have not. >> why not? >> no one has sought me out. >> why haven't you sought them out? >> i don't want to intrude in anybody's life. >> that's a cop out. >> no, it's not. i don't think it's appropriate to seek my victims out. >> wouldn't it be part of you self-redemption to actually track some of these people down? we know some of their names, know what they're saying about you. if you actually called them up and said i would like to talk to you. i would like to apologize personally. >> i never really considered it before. but i think a better way for me is over the next 15 years as i go around the world and continue to speak and do my stuff, all money that flows in, i think actions speak louder than words. and i think by doing what i'm doing here, by turning over 100% of the profits is probably the most genuine thing i could do. >> in a way, what you're doing now -- i don't mean this to be too cynical. you're doing the right thing as best you probably can. what i would say to you if i was being critical is, you're kind of talking about it still as a financial thing to be resolved financially.

that you can deal with this with money in the same way that at the time you could make money on these people. it was all money. it wasn't really about human beings. i suppose my question to you would be when i read out these names, these are real people really who have suffered personally badly. but have you ever seen them as human beings? or is part of the issue with the kind of culture we see in the movie that actually in the end you become certainly dehumanized? >> i think that's a very good point you're bring up. i think one of the ways i allowed myself to do that was to sort of take a step back and they become account numbers and names versus people. i think that's a problem with again what happens on wall street sometimes. not with everybody, but it's a possibility. but if you think that's how i feel now, then you're completely don't know what is in my heart. because honestly, i feel terrible about what happened. you asked if i had shame back then yes, now no. i'm not going to live my life in shame. i think it's a toxic emotion. i live with remorse. that means i go out and do

things actively to make up for the wrong that i committed in the past. and i think that is for me and i think for most people who made mistakes -- we've all made mistakes. i made really big once and done really great things as well. so i try daily to right the wrong i committed. that's the best i can do. >> if i found a few of your victims. would you come and see them? >> if you found them? yeah, sure i would, yeah. you want me back on your show again? is that what you're saying? >> possibly. i think it would be a very interesting meeting. >> go and check the ratings first. >> i find it fascinating that you have never met any of them. >> i haven't. >> it's never crossed your mind to. >> no. and it's not that i would be against it at all, in fact. and it's funny. one thing i said to my fiancee, who's an amazing lady. and most ethical lady from a great family. and i said to her when some of this stuff that people lost their life savings which i know is just not true. i said i would love if someone really lost their life savings because of me, i would like to meet that person. >> what about somebody losing half their life savings like

peter springsteel? he existed. he's an architect in connecticut. >> that's why all this money is going into the fund. >> does it make a difference if he lost all or half his life savings? >> if you take an old person who has no money, take all their money. i don't think that this is -- i'm not saying what i did is right. what i did is wrong and disgusting. >> what do your parents think of it all? >> my parents? >> yeah. >> you know, i'm fortunate that i have amazing parents. >> let's take a short break. when we come back i want to talk about the crash of you, the firm, the feds coming in. we saw it all in dramatic play out on the movie. but also you then turned rat and end up being wiretapped and squealing on your friends and they all go to prison. some of them, steve madden and others, do more time an you do. i want to get your reaction to all that after the break. ♪ ♪ ♪

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i started my own firm out of an abandoned auto body shop. we will be targeting the wealthiest 1% of americans. >> i love three things. i love my country, i love jesus christ and i love making people rich. hello. >> leo dicaprio at the beginning of his career in "the wolf of wall street" the real life wolf is of course jordan belfort back with me now exclusively. more and more tweets pouring in it's getting incredible

reaction. aaron smith a reuters journalist "interesting to watch belfort. he seems on the very edge of everything, honesty, intelligence, remorse, leo played it well." that would be my take on you. you've always done everything to tremendous excess if you like. now you're in a very different place in your life. and yet you probably still are wrestling slightly with some of these issues? would that be fair to say? >> in what sense? >> how best to deal with the feelings you may have of the old jordan belfort? >> you know, i'm pretty at peace with me on an overall level. that being said, there's a deeper level of me that i don't think i'll ever truly be 100% at peace. i don't think i'm built that way. i'm always going to be a bit self-tortureded and a bit insecure about myself. and i think most human beings are like that. i think there's a fallacy about me that i must have been always one way and always like on the ball. and i wasn't. as a kid i wasn't that secure always. i'm like any other person in some ways i feel confident, otherwise not. i put on a brave face when i'm

not. one thing i don't happen i don't let my fears stop me. i'm willing to move into uncomfortable situations. >> it's an incredible story when you're on this superyacht that you bought. it starts to sink. but you've taken so many drugs, your only reaction is to basically save the drugs, and you get bailed out by the italian nayy, with friends and so on, get onto their boat and carry on taking more drugs and partying. you all nearly died. then you find out your private jet has also crashed. >> right. >> everything's beginning to spiral completely into sort of madness. there's a scene in the movie, this memorable scene with leo dicaprio taking too many quaaludes and disintegrating before our very eyes. >> that's incredible acting. >> do you remember that happening? >> oh, my god, yeah. when i remember -- let's just say what i don't remember is the seven cars i hit. i thought i made it home without a scratch on my car. and then when the police came and arrested me, i went out to my car and it was smashed. >> we laugh in the movie when we see these things.

>> i know. and it's a weird thing. >> the reality is you're very lucky to be afive. >> alive. >> when you were arrested what was the worst? was it prison, the first night in prison? what was the absolute lowest moment for you? >> i think the lowest moment for me was not getting arrested. i was honestly somewhat relieved at that point. because i knew there was an investigation for years. my life has changed. i was out of wall street. i was doing things right again. but i knew i had to pay the piper eventually. so it was somewhat of a relief. but then my marriage unwound very, very quickly after that. and the thought of losing my children and not being able to be with my children, that to me was the bottom. when the reality of that having to move out of my house. >> you're wore trportrayed in te you're a bad father, allegations of bad husband as well, wife beating and so on.

true? were you a bad husband? bad father? >> i know i was an amazing father. and i'm proud of that. so that's not true. >> always an amazing father? >> listen. i got sober when my daughter was 3 and my son was 1. and even then before when ways drugged out no one could be a great father but i wasn't always drugged out. i think the one thing in the books far more than the movie is my love for my children came through very strongly. >> what's your relationship with them right now? >> really really close. >> what do they think of the movie? >> that's a good question. i took my son to the movie, who's 18, with my ex-wife together. we wanted to show him what was true. i never punched my wife in the stomach. >> did you hit her at all? >> we had a struggle on the stairs. what happened was the context was very different. the time i hit her was the day i got stoober 17 years ago. we had a struggle on the stairs and i kicked out when she was trying to stop me. that's true with my daughter. but it didn't happen in the end.

in the day i got sober. >> when you say i was always a great father, kicking your kid's mother in front of them is not being a great father. >> right. i said when i'm on drugs, though, you can't be very great. that's what i said to you. i qualified it. that moment was the highest i'd ever been in my life. i hadn't slept in probably two months because of all the cocaine. so yeah, in that blip of course when i said i was on drugs. but i got sober. that was the last day i ever did drugs. >> when you took your ex-wife and your kid to the cinema to watch the movie, you were able to finish that story. how did they feel? >> listen, my children have seen me come back from jail and all that to build this new life. so my children are obviously proud of me. they know me for the man i am today versus that person that they don't even remember because i got sober when they were still babies. >> and your ex-wife? what does she feel about it? other than being portrayed by a fabulous actress? >> i think she's very happy for me, that my life -- i was able to come back from that as well. and i think she looks back in

perspective herself, that was a crazy time. sand we didn't even know how crazy it was when it was happening. i can't speak for her. but again, it's this sort of little bit at a time and it seems like it's normal while it's happening. we look back now and say it's insane. i think she's at peace with it as well. >> take a final break. let's come back and talk about this. this is a pen. and i'm going to get you to send it to me. as the movie says, you can sell a pen as well as you can sell anything else. we're going to find out whether you can sell me this little pen after the break. what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear. ask your doctor about safety information as serious eye problems may occur. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial.

dominique wilkins, are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza. he said victoza works differently than pills, and comes in a pen. and the needle is thin.

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back now with the real-life wolf of wall street, jordan belfort. >> it's not true. that was fictionalized in the movie. when i had that deal with the s.e.c. and i gave that farewell teach, i said farewell and i left. i went out and my partner then took over the firm and -- but in the movie, and i understand why the writer did that, because having the movie in the backdrop is much more pleasing to everybody.

it wasn't like that really. >> on steve madden, he obviously ended up doing more time than you did, did you feel guilt about all the people who went to prison because you basically ratted on them? >> not steve madden at all. number one, steve madden is a great guy and everything, but he didn't go to jail just because of me. there was six other people who were together -- >> have you spoken to him? >> i haven't. the reason he did more time is he had some issues in jail. >> you got less time because you ratted out others. how do you feel about that now? >> it's a good question. there's two sides to that count, because the part of it that says, well, i'm supposed to do the right thing, and be an upstanding citizen and this crime is committed and i help bring those people to justice.

the other half is you're ratting on your friends. >> would you do the same again? >> in the movie, i didn't rat my friends out. >> you ratted the ones you didn't like very much. >> it's the ones that weren't personal friends. it was an incredibly tough, ethical dilemma. and in the end, the real agent, agent coleman was an amazing guy. i have nothing but the highest regard and respect for. he was instrumental in helping me deal with that ethical dilemma. >> no regrets? >> what? >> no regrets? >> of course i have regrets about it. but i know i made the right decision morally and ethically. >> in the end, you're a salman. here's a pen. in the movie, we see jordan sell a pen. sell me a pen. >> i'll give you some sales training. when you tell someone to sell a

pen, i don't know what type of pens you use and what not. so when you do this to a sales person, the best thing to say is i would say, piers, how long have you been in the market for a pen? >> i've wanted a pen for three months. >> so you've been looking for a pen three months now. what type of pens do you typically use? >> a nice ball point pen. >> now you know what i'm doing. the idea is when you sell someone something, you need to be asking questions first to qualify, to find out what someone's needs are. the big mistake is this is the best pen in the world, it defies gravity, it's cheap. if you do that, you sound like a moron. >> are you going to give me truthful responses? >> if you would have said to me, i don't use a pen. oh, really, will you be in the market for a pen? have a nice day, i don't want to sell someone a pen that doesn't need a pen. how often do you use a pen? so that's the way to really do this correctly. other wise, you're basically

just jamming a pen down someone's threat. >> jordan belfort, if there's one thing i've learned tonight is how to sell a pen. good to talk to you. >> my pleasure. it says here that a woman's sex drive increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long. eat the 100% goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. and better is so easy withrning you cabenefiber.o something better for yourself.

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jerald butler is helping one of our own cnn heroes. the connection dates back to 2010. >> please join me in honoring cnn hero, and i'm proud that he's a fellow scottsman, magnus mcfarland. >> i was a little starstruck when i met him. >> since then we've become good friends and now here i am in liberia. >> we've been driving for about an hour now. we're passing little kids going to school, where the feeding program is going on. >> me and magnus against everybody else. >> just a huge need here. there are so many children out of school, huge problems with

malnutriti malnutrition. we're providing daily meals so children come to school. >> all right, who's next? >> there's a great partnership going on here, the parents, the elders, the children, the volunteers. >> good, yeah? >> when cnn heroes happened, we were feeding just over 400,000 children. now we're well over 800,000 children every day. that's in the world. >> three plus four. >> seven! >> we've seen enrollment in schools has increased. >> what is this? >> lion. >> a lion didn't eat at all in a day before they came to school. now they're motivated to come to school. education suddenly becomes like a possibility. >> who would have thought that when i gave magnus the cnn hero's award that i would be surrounded by the most amazing kids. just shows you what one person can do when they show a bit of

love. >> every week we'll be honoring a cnn hero, an everyday person doing extraordinary thing to help others. that's all for us tonight. we'll see you back here on monday night at 9:00 p.m. [ singing in spanish ] >> i always feel slightly oppressed by beautiful vistas. you know i mean?