The largest ever EuroMillions jackpot has been scooped by one lucky man in Austria.

He won £209,000,000 on Friday night after spending just €10 on online tickets, according to Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

The man’s identity hasn’t been revealed and it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to remain anonymous.

Many jackpot winners do, although UK couple Joe and Jess Thwaite, who won the fifth largest amount, €215 million (around £184 million at the time) in May 2022, did go public.

They said they didn’t want to burden friends and family with such a big secret.

More about the Thwaites and others who have gone public

Joe was 49 at the time of the win and working as communications sales engineer and Jess, was 44 and a business manager of a hairdressing salon.

The parents-of-two, from Gloucestershire, said the phenomenal win ‘gives us time to dream which we haven’t had before’.

Their first purchase was a chest of drawers and a wardrobe for their bedroom – but they said their number one priority was supporting family members after a ‘hard few years, just like many people and families across the country’.

Joe said he normally bought a EuroMillions Lucky Dip ticket ‘because it’s easier’ and purchased the winning ticket on The National Lottery App.

They had no idea of the result until Joe woke up at 5.15am the next morning to tend to their dogs – and received an email saying ‘Good news, you’ve won a prize’.

Showing extreme self control, Joe didn’t wake up his wife to share the news after seeing the nine-figure prize.

‘I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do’, he said. ‘I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up so I just laid there for what seemed like forever.

‘I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!’

When the alarm finally rang, Joe turned to Jess and said: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’

Hearing the news in disbelief, his wife thought he was joking, concluded that it wasn’t worth getting too excited about as it probably wasn’t true and got up to make a coffee.

But, after going about their normal morning routine, the pair called dedicated phone number when the lines opened at 8am and were told they had just become the UK’s then biggest-ever winners.

While many of us would call our managers to say we weren’t coming in and crack out the champagne, Jess and Joe went about their normal day, doing the school run and settling down to work from home.

Unable to keep the news in, Jess met her mum in a car park before work – with her screaming reaction bringing it home how life-changing the money would be and both breaking down in tears.

The couple have acknowledged their previous financial situation was ‘not horrendous’ but say the cost of living crisis had ‘affected our lives’.

Jess said: ‘Just like many people and families across the country, the last few years have been hard. My sister and I have tried to look after the business and the 20 staff, but times are difficult in hairdressing. 

‘Joe has been working hard and we have always tried to put everything into doing the best we can for the children.

‘We’ve had one week to think about this and we now have time to share lots of experiences and go on adventures with our family and friends.’

One couple who scored a £115 million EuroMillions jackpot had given away more than half of their winnings to loved ones, charities and those in need during the coronavirus crisis within two years of wining.

Frances Connolly wrote a list of 50 close friends and family to help as she was too excited to sleep on the night she and husband Patrick, 56, secured their fortune on New Year’s Day 2019.

Almost two years on, the pair had given away £60 million – extending their generosity to health workers on the Covid-19 frontline, care home residents, hospital patients and hundreds of other people.

The husband and wife, from Moira, County Down, vowed to not become part of the ‘jet set’ when they celebrated their win with a hug and a cup of tea.

They stayed true to their promise, laughing off the opportunity to live in a 15-bed stately home and deciding against flying first class to New Zealand to visit their daughter. They say they could have helped a young couple pay off a mortgage with the ticket price.

Another couple who went public with a EuroMillions win was Richard and Debbie Nuttall, from Colne, Lancashire.

They scooped £61.7 million share of a £123 million jackpot in January 2024.

They were in Fuerteventura celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in January when an email from the National Lottery told them they had exciting news.

Mr Nuttall, a self-employed accountant, said when he checked his account online he saw a win of £2.60.

He said: ‘So I went through to Debs and I said we’ve won £2.60 on the lottery and she was like: “Woohoo, we’ll go and have a bacon butty or something with that.”‘

But he later realised the £2.60 was from a win in November and when he logged in again later that day, after another email, he saw a figure of £61,708,231.

He tried to call the National Lottery from Fuerteventura but a bad signal in the Canary Island meant four calls kept cutting out.

‘I’m thinking, “this is a scam, someone’s trying to extract information out of me inch by inch,”‘ he said.

He said: ‘Obviously we were stunned but also very excited at the time, it was almost like Del Boy and Rodney when they come out of Sotheby’s and they start cheering and punching the air, the car was rocking.’

And in 2016 Sonia Davies, then 53, and her family won £61 million on the EuroMillions after she asked her daughter to buy tickets because she was ‘on a roll’ days after having a potentially deadly tumour removed.

The mum was in the US for the pioneering surgery when she called her eldest daughter, Stephanie, 23, back home in Wales, and asked her to pick up some tickets for the family syndicate and said ‘we’re on a winning streak’.

Stephanie bought six lucky dips with 40 minutes to spare before the deadline, and one of those turned out to be very lucky.

Admin assistant Sonia said: ‘I felt cured by the Friday and was a multi-millionaire by the evening, it was just unreal.’

What have EuroMillions winners bought in the past?

In the past, people who have gone public with lottery wins have chosen to spend their cash on new houses, cars, holidays and on their family and friends.

‘The people who spend the money too quickly are a very, very small percentage,’ Andy Carter, who was a Senior Winner’s Advisor at former Lottery owners Camelot, previously told the Metro.

‘The vast majority of winners are very conservative – they have been blessed with a huge amount of money and they want to protect it.’

Can winning the lottery bring more misery than joy?

Although many winners, like Andy said, are careful with their money history has a fair few examples of winners who haven’t been so cautious and their lives have taken a turn for the worse as a result.

Some studies suggest lottery winners in the US are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three to five years compared to the average citizen.

Around one-third find themselves in financial trouble – and it does not end there.

The pressure may force someone to spiral into depression, and lead to alcohol and drug abuse and problems with family and friends.

One such example in the UK is Michael Carroll, a bin man who won £9,700,000 on the National Lottery in 2002 – but declared bankruptcy nine years later.

Dubbed the ‘Lotto lout’, he gave £4 million to friends and family, including £1,400,000 to his wife Sandra Aiken.

But shortly after the couple wed in 2003, she decided she had had enough.

Over the next few years, Carroll appeared in court more than 30 times while a mansion he bought in Norfolk fell into a state of disrepair.

He has admitted he wasted millions on cocaine, gambling, prostitutes and drinking two bottles of vodka a day.

By 2013, Carroll was broke and homeless, so he returned to Scotland and worked in a biscuit factory and then a slaughterhouse before landing a job as a coal man.

Then there’s Adrian and Gillian Bayford, who won  £148,656,000 in August 2012, but are no longer married.

Gillian now has a conviction for threatening her ex-boyfriend, domestic abuse charity worker Gavin Innes, who she pushed and shouted at in 2017.

She then married convicted fraudster Brian Deans, before ditching him because he begged for more and more money after blowing the monthly allowance she gave him on cars, watches and trips with friends.

Adrian, meanwhile, turned to eating 50 Cornish pasties a day to cope with loneliness after being dumped by younger women, one of whom he dated while sending saucy messages to an ex.

Another jackpot winning couple to divorce after scooping big was Colin and Chris Weir, who won £161.6 million in 2011.

They split up some months before Colin died of sepsis and an acute kidney injury in December 2019, at the age of 71.

By then he had spent half his £80million share of the fortune on cars, property and a controlling stake in his favourite football club, Partick Thistle.

The former TV cameraman also donated millions to the Scottish National Party and the pro-independence Yes campaign ahead of the 2014 referendum.

What actually happens when you win the EuroMillions?

If you find yourself in the almost impossible-to-imagine situation of having a winning lottery ticket, the first thing to do (once you’ve finished screaming into a pillow or jumping up and down) is to turn the ticket over and find the phone number to ring.

Andy explained: ‘If you were to win the EuroMillions tomorrow night, you would check the ticket, ring the number on the back of the ticket and that would put you through to a lottery line. They would then get a member of my team to call you back.’

This first phone call to the National Lottery call centre is important, because it sets in motion the crucial steps that all lottery winners must follow to claim their prize.

How does the National Lottery contact winners?

From the moment you realise you’ve won to actually getting the money, winners are looked after every step of the way by a dedicated team of National Lottery ‘Winner’s Advisors’ like Andy.

It is their job to support winners through the entire process so they can begin to enjoy their life-changing win.

Andy, or one of his advisor team members, will call lottery winners back as quickly as possible once they receive news that a EuroMillions prize has been claimed.

After the initial phone call with the winners’ advisor team, Andy or one of his colleagues will visit the winner, in person.

Ideally, you’ll get a visit the next day, or failing that as soon as the winner can allow.

How long after winning the lottery do you get your money?

During the home visit by the Winners Advisory team, a number of checks will be carried out to verify the winner.

‘Within half an hour I can tell if someone has won the money,’ Andy revealed.

As well as checking the winning ticket is legit,the advisory team are there to answer any questions that the winners may have and, as you can imagine for someone who has just become a (sometimes multi) millionaire, they have more than a few.

‘Sometimes we get to people’s houses and we don’t even open the computer for an hour because we just sit there and answer people’s questions,’ Andy said. ‘This could sometimes last all day.’

As soon as the winning ticket is verified and the ID of the winner confirmed, the Lottery can pay the winner their money on that very day.

However, once the money is paid into an elected bank account, it takes two days for the money to process before it can be withdrawn.

This means that the longest you have to wait before getting the money is around three days between discovering you’ve won the lottery and actually being able to spend the cash.

Where do lottery winners put their money?

Winners have no choice but to have their winning sum deposited in one, single bank account by the Lottery – so there’s no stuffing it under your bedroom mattress or locking it in your personal safe.

The winner can choose the bank they would like to hold the money with, but a brand new account with that bank is set up – usually with a private arm of that bank who specialise with dealing with large sums of money of this kind.

This bank account can be open for as long as the winner needs it to be, or they can move the money to other accounts once it has cleared after a couple of days.

Can EuroMillions winners remain anonymous?

Yes and as we mentioned earlier, many people choose not to go public.

‘All winners are anonymous,’ Andy confirmed, ‘This is the default position for all lottery winners.’

Andy also impresses that any publicity surrounding a winner is a personal choice and there is no set media schedule – every winner is different.

‘It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.

‘Sometimes we go to a winner’s home and we’ve already had media enquiries before we even get there because the winner wants to celebrate their win and mark it publicly,’ Andy explained.

‘Often the rule of thumb tends to be the higher the amount of money the more likely the winner will be to take publicity.’

However, if a winner does choose to keep their newfound wealth a secret, then Andy and his team are the only ones to know about the win.

He says: ‘It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.’

Is your spouse entitled to your lottery winnings?

When it comes to the decision to keep a lottery win a secret or tell the whole world, you’d think that either way, one of the people to definitely be in the loop would be the winner’s partner or spouse.

But, should you want to keep your newfound wealth entirely to yourself, the National Lottery certainly isn’t going to tell you otherwise.

‘A National Lottery win belongs to the signatories of the relevant validation paperwork. How a winner(s) chooses to share (or not) winnings is their personal decision,’ Elanor Corbett, PR Executive at The National Lottery confirmed to Metro.

Are EuroMillions winnings taxable?

‘There is no tax on the win itself, but if the win produces an income through interest, then that will be taxed as part of your normal income tax,’ Andy explained.

Does EuroMillions money go to charity?

‘The only way the EuroMillions jackpot would go to National Lottery Good Causes is if the jackpot is won in a draw but, for whatever reason, the ticket-holder does not then subsequently come forward to claim,’ Elanor told us.

‘Unclaimed prizes have a maximum of 180 days to be claimed from the date of the winning draw. After that, the money plus the interest it has generated whilst it is held in trust, is passed over to National Lottery Good Causes.

‘Each week, The National Lottery raises around £30 million for Good Causes because every time a National Lottery ticket is bought a proportion of the ticket sale automatically goes to National Lottery Good Causes.’

Which countries have had the most EuroMillions winners?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, out of the nine countries that take part in the lottery, those with the highest populations have the largest number of jackpot winners over the years.

The UK, with a population of almost 67 million, tops the table with 132 jackpot winners since the contest started in 2004, while France, which has a population of around 66.6 million, follows closely behind with 130 winners.

Spain, with a population of 49 million, comes third with 122 winners.

Portugal, meanwhile has had 86 winners, Belgium 45, Switzerland 26, Ireland 19 and the tiny country of Luxembourg, 4.

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On Friday someone in Austria got very rich after scooping a whopping £209,000,000.

The lucky EuroMillions ticket holder won the lottery’s biggest ever jackpotafter several rollovers kept pushing the prize money up.

This is the 20th time in EuroMillions history, a person or syndicate in Austria has walked off with the big prize.

Someone in Austria also won the second ever biggest jackpot of €240 million (around £201 million) in December 2023.

But unsurprisingly, out of the nine countries that take part in the lottery, those with the highest populations have the largest number of jackpot winners over the years.

The UK, with a population of almost 67 million, tops the table with 132 jackpot winners since the contest started in 2004, while France, which has a population of around 66.6 million, follows closely behind with 130 winners.

Spain, with a population of 49 million, comes third with 122 winners.

Portugal, meanwhile has had 86 winners, Belgium 45, Switzerland 26, Ireland 19 and the tiny country of Luxembourg, 4.

The third biggest jackpot – €230 million (around £192 million) – was in the UK in July 2022.

All of the top three winners chose to stay anonymous. In fact, in the top six jackpot winner list, the only ones who have revealed their identity are British couple Jess and Joe Thwaite, who scooped €215 million (around £184 million) in May 2022.

They revealed they still went to work on the day they found out and decided to go public so as not to ‘burden’ others with their secret.

Winning such a colossal amount of money seems like a dream come true – and for some it really is.

But, as we explored here, there are many examples of winners whose lives took a turn for the worse after scooping the jackpot.

According one study, in the US one third find themselves in financial trouble.

Of course we don’t want to take pleasure in other people’s misery, but if you’re feeling a little sad that you didn’t win last night’s gigantic sum, bearing that in mind might take the edge off.

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Someone won £209,300,000 in the EuroMillions on Friday after the jackpot rolled over seven times in a row.

If it had been won in the UK – not Austria, where a lucky individual bought a ticket for £10 – it would have smashed a national record held since 2022.

That year, the record was set and broken – and nearly broken again – in the space of just four months.

Jess and Joe Thwaites only wore the crown for two months that year before some secret someone usurped them.

Fortunately for the winner of a £195.7 million jackpot that July, they get to keep the ‘biggest ever UK lottery win’ title, at least for now.

But as some lottery winners have found, the change brought by so much money isn’t always good.

So who are the reigning EuroMillions champions who’ve won the biggest ever UK lottery jackpots?

11. Frances and Patrick Connolly – £114,969,775

Originally from Northern Ireland, Patrick and Frances Connolly were the fourth biggest winners when they it the jackpot on New Year’s Day, 2019.

They splashed their cash on a lot of things – Jaguar, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo cars, and a County Durham Mansion with seven acres of land, and gifts worth £60million for their family and friends.

A grant-giving charity – PFC Trust – they founded funds community groups in Hartlepool, where they moved for work in 1990.

It’s become such a backbone of the charity sector, scammers masqueraded as the Connolly couple to offer cash to 50 people if they hit 10,000 subscribers on a bogus YouTube channel.

But the very first thing they bought with their winnings was a pair of M&S underwear

10. Anonymous – £121,328,187

The identity of the person who won this April 24, 2018 Superdraw jackpot has never been revealed after their chose to stay anonymous.

9. Anonymous – £122,555,350

This jackpot started as just £14million before rolling over all the way to the all-time spot of the UK’s ninth biggest lottery prize on April 2, 2021.

The winner, however, has kept their identity a secret.

8. Anonymous – £123,458,008

Another anonymous winner bagged this Superdraw jackpot on June 11, 2019, after it rolled over from a previous draw.

7. Adrian and Gillian Bayford – £148,656,000

The life of a lottery winner isn’t all glitz and glam. Sometimes it’s a catastrophe – and Adrian and Gillian Bayford can attest to that.

Since winning in August 2012, the married couple are no longer married.

Gillian now has a conviction for threatening her ex-boyfriend, domestic abuse charity worker Gavin Innes, who she pushed and shouted at in 2017.

She then married convicted fraudster Brian Deans, before ditching him because he begged for more and more money after blowing the monthly allowance she gave him on cars, watches and trips with friends.

Adrian, meanwhile, turned to eating 50 Cornish pasties a day to cope with loneliness after being dumped by younger women, one of whom he dated while sending saucy messages to an ex.

The 53-year-old since partnered up with fiancée, 46-year-old Tracey Biles, 46.

With her inspiration, Andrian has planted a vineyard the size of six football pitches at his estate on the border of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

He had also planned to turn 20 acres of his Horseheath Lodge estate in to a children’s theme park with a train ride and maze.

But he scrapped those designs after concerns the development would be far too ‘urban’, bring too much traffic, and threaten archaeological remains.

6. Colin and Chris Weir – £161,653,000

Within a decade of winning the EuroMillions draw, Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, had divorced after 38 years of marriage.

Colin died of sepsis and an acute kidney injury a few months later in December 2019, at the age of 71.

By then he had spent half his £80million share of the fortune on cars, property and a controlling stake in his favourite football club, Partick Thistle.

The former TV cameraman also donated millions to the Scottish National Party and the pro-independence Yes campaign ahead of the 2014 referendum.

He left behind £212,000 worth of furniture, jewellery and artworks, a £10,000 Bentley Arnage, a Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a Mercedes Benz E Class Estate, a Mercedes Benz V Class people carrier, and a pot of petty cash containing £263.90.

After the split, Chris, previously a psychiatric nurse, kept their Frognal House mansion, which they bought for £3.5million after a 10-minute viewing.

She sold the property in Troon, Ayrshire, for £2.3million in 2019.

They had also set up the Weir Charitable Trust, which funded projects across Scotland.

5. Anonymous – £170,221,000

This EuroMillions jackpot had to go somewhere when it reached the stag of a Must Be Won draw.

It had already sat at the €190million cap for the maximum five draws by the time one UK ticketholder bagged it.

They chose to stay anonymous.

4. Anonymous – £171,815,297

An anonymous ticketholder claimed their EuroMillions jackpot within 48 hours of the numbers being drawn on September 23, 2022.

It was the third big win in the UK that year.

3. Anonymous – £177,033,699

The fourth EuroMillions jackpot winner of 2024 pipped the third spot on the all-time list in November, when they wont more than £177million.

Previous winner’s last year only secured £24million, £33million and £61million each – no small prize, but not enough to get into this EuroMillions Hall of Fame.

2. Joe and Jess Thwaite – £184,262,899

A new wardrobe and drawers for their bedroom were the first buys for Gloucestershire couple Joe and Jess Thwaite.

They had bought a EuroMillions Lucky Dip ticket on The National Lottery app, ‘because it’s easier’, on the very day of the May 10, 2022, draw.

A communications sales engineer, and the business manager of a hairdressing salon, they were the first of three big winners that year.

Joe saw they’d won when he woke early the next morning. He said: ‘I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do.

‘I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up so I just laid there for what seemed like forever.

‘I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!’

When the alarm finally rang, Joe turned to Jess and said: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’

1. Anonymous – £195,707,000

Just two months after Joe and Jess Thwaite set the record for all-time biggest jackpot, their crown was taken by a winner who chose to keep their identity private.

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Assassination, abduction or substance abuse – all part of a curse following lottery winners.

Players may see the lottery as a lucky ticket that will make all their dreams come true, as the Austrian man who pocketed yesterday’s £200 million EuroMillions jackpot likely did.

And as did the Britons who, only recently this year, saw £83,000,000 and £65,000,000 jackpots drop into their bank accounts.

But these tickets turn out to be a deal with the devil.

Believe it or not, the reality of scooping a jackpot is different to what many of us imagine.

History has countless examples of winners whose lives took a turn for the worse after scooping a large sum of money.

Some studies suggest lottery winners in the US are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three to five years compared to the average citizen.

Around one-third find themselves in financial trouble – and it does not end there.

The pressure may force someone to spiral into depression, and lead to alcohol and drug abuse and problems with family and friends.

One such example in the UK is Michael Carroll, a bin man who won £9,700,000 on the National Lottery in 2002 – but declared bankruptcy nine years later.

Dubbed the ‘Lotto lout’, he gave £4 million to friends and family, including £1,400,000 to his wife Sandra Aiken.

But shortly after the couple wed in 2003, she decided she had had enough.

Over the next few years, Carroll appeared in court more than 30 times while a mansion he bought in Norfolk fell into a state of disrepair.

He has admitted he wasted millions on cocaine, gambling, prostitutes and drinking two bottles of vodka a day.

By 2013, Carroll was broke and homeless, so he returned to Scotland and worked in a biscuit factory and then a slaughterhouse before landing a job as a coal man.

Alongside bankruptcy and substance abuse, there are instances of people facing threats such as kidnapping after winning the lottery.

In 1960, Sydney salesperson Bazil Thorne and his wife Freda scooped the equivalent of £1,500,000.

The couple became overnight celebrities, but the fame and fortune brought tragedy.

It was on July 7 when their son Graeme was kidnapped while on his way to school.

A hefty ransom demand was issued with threats to throw the eight-year-old to the sharks in Sydney.

His body was eventually discovered on waste ground in a suburb. The case is also known as the first kidnapping for ransom in Australia.

A popular Reddit thread attracted comments on the dark side of winning the lottery.

User BlakeClass gave their take on the pitfalls of a jackpot win, from unlucky tales of woe to what you should immediately do if you match all the numbers.

‘It’s something of an open secret that winners of obnoxiously large jackpots tend to end up badly with alarming regularity,’ they wrote.

Sharing some key steps people should take after winning, they listed: ‘So, what the hell do you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?

‘This is the absolutely most important thing you can do right away. Nothing. Do not tell anyone.

‘1) Immediately retain an attorney. 2) Decide to take the lump sum. 3) Decide right now, how much you plan to give to family and friends. 4) You will be encouraged to hire an investment manager. Considerable pressure will be applied. Don’t.

‘Investment managers charge fees, usually a percentage of assets.’

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We’re sorry to report that someone has scooped up one of the biggest lottery wins ever in last night’s EuroMillions draw.

A lucky lottery participant in Austria snagged a whopping €250 million (or about £209,300,000), Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper, reported.

He won with a stake of just €10.

The winning numbers were 10, 21, 30, 42 and 45, lucky star numbers one and nine.

The man is one of 5,125,411 winners, National Lottery says. So, to be safe, maybe check your ticket.

National Lottery says that while no one pocketed the top prize, at least three people in the UK have won £246,037.60 each for matching five numbers and one lucky star.

Eight people will soon see £13,503.10 drop into their bank accounts for matching five numbers.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at National Lottery operator Allwyn, previously said: ‘This Friday night promises to be a massive one for EuroMillions players, as the country’s biggest ever winner could be made.

‘Get your tickets early as there is an astounding estimated jackpot of £202 million up for grabs. A single UK winner of this jaw-dropping prize would be crowned The National Lottery’s biggest winner of all time.

‘This colossal amount of money would make any lucky ticket-holder richer than some of the UK’s biggest and richest names, such as Harry Styles, Adele and Harry Kane.’

Austria has a bit of a winning streak when it comes to lotto jackpots.

An Austrian man bagged a life-changing sum of €240,000,000 (roughly £200,700,000) in August 2023, one of the highest wins in the competition’s history.

It’s not to say the UK hasn’t struck gold in the past, though. Two Britons have bagged the EuroMillions jackpot this year: the £83,000,000 prize in January and the £65,000,000 jackpot last month.

But winning the lottery can be both a blessing and a curse, some winners have said. From bankruptcy and substance abuse to even assassination, things aren’t always so peachy for fresh-faced millionaires.

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The biggest lottery win ever is up for grabs in tonight’s EuroMillions draw, with one lucky ticket-holder possibly pocketing a colossal £202 million.

It would make for the biggest ever jackpot – eclipsing the £195 million won by an anonymous UK player in July 2022.

Just two months earlier, Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won a then record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10, 2022.

The UK’s third biggest win came after an anonymous ticket-holder scooped the £177 million jackpot in the draw on November 26 last year.

No-one won the £182 million EuroMillions jackpot on Tuesday, meaning the top prize rolls over into Friday’s draw.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at National Lottery operator Allwyn, said: ‘This Friday night promises to be a massive one for EuroMillions players, as the country’s biggest ever winner could be made.

‘Get your tickets early as there is an astounding estimated jackpot of £202 million up for grabs. A single UK winner of this jaw-dropping prize would be crowned The National Lottery’s biggest winner of all time.

‘This colossal amount of money would make any lucky ticket-holder richer than some of the UK’s biggest and richest names, such as Harry Styles, Adele and Harry Kane.’

It would be the third UK EuroMillions jackpot this year, after one ticket-holder came forward for their £83 million prize in January, and another scooped a £65 million jackpot last month.

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For lottery winners, the moment they realise they’ve won, their lives are never the same.

The winner of the biggest-ever EuroMillons jackpot in the UK – a cool £195 million – decided to remain anonymous after netting the prize in 2022, so we can’t ask them what it felt like.

The runners-up, Joe and Jess Thwaite, said their £184 million prize gave them ‘time to dream’ and support all their family and friends.

While they maintain the record for the biggest UK, another huge jackpot was won in Europe on Friday, March 29, with results seeing one lucky ticket-holder win a massive £209 million jackpot.

But what happens after that jaw-dropping moment when, hands shaking as you double and triple check the number on your ticket, you realise that you’re not dreaming and you have actually won?

Andy Carter, a Senior Winner’s Advisor at Camelot, has spent the last 13 years helping people who have become millionaires overnight to come to terms with their new reality.

He spoke to Metro.co.uk about what really happens after someone realises they’ve won the lottery.

What happens when you win the EuroMillions

If you find yourself in the almost impossible-to-imagine situation of having a winning lottery ticket, the first thing to do (once you’ve finished screaming into a pillow or jumping up and down) is to turn the ticket over and find the phone number to ring.

Andy explained: ‘If you were to win the EuroMillions tomorrow night, you would check the ticket, ring the number on the back of the ticket and that would put you through to a lottery line. They would then get a member of my team to call you back.’

This first phone call to the National Lottery call centre is important, because it sets in motion the crucial steps that all lottery winners must follow to claim their prize.

How does the National Lottery contact winners?

From the moment you realise you’ve won to actually getting the money, winners are looked after every step of the way by a dedicated team of National Lottery ‘Winner’s Advisors’ like Andy.

It is their job to support winners through the entire process so they can begin to enjoy their life-changing win.

Andy, or one of his advisor team members, will call lottery winners back as quickly as possible once they receive news that a EuroMillions prize has been claimed.

After the initial phone call with the winners’ advisor team, Andy or one of his colleagues will visit the winner, in person.

Ideally, you’ll get a visit the next day, or failing that as soon as the winner can allow.

How long after winning the lottery do you get the money?

During the home visit by the Winners Advisory team, a number of checks will be carried out to verify the winner.

‘Within half an hour I can tell if someone has won the money,’ Andy revealed.

As well as checking the winning ticket is legit, Andy and his team are there to answer any questions that the winners may have and, as you can imagine for someone who has just become a (sometimes multi) millionaire, they have more than a few.

‘Sometimes we get to people’s houses and we don’t even open the computer for an hour because we just sit there and answer people’s questions,’ Andy said. ‘This could sometimes last all day.’

As soon as the winning ticket is verified and the ID of the winner confirmed, the Lottery can pay the winner their money on that very day.

However, once the money is paid into an elected bank account, it takes two days for the money to process before it can be withdrawn.

This means that the longest you have to wait before getting the money is around three days between discovering you’ve won the lottery and actually being able to spend the cash.

Where do lottery winners put their money?

Winners have no choice but to have their winning sum deposited in one, single bank account by the Lottery – so there’s no stuffing it under your bedroom mattress or locking it in your personal safe.

The winner can choose the bank they would like to hold the money with, but a brand new account with that bank is set up – usually with a private arm of that bank who specialise with dealing with large sums of money of this kind.

This bank account can be open for as long as the winner needs it to be, or they can move the money to other accounts once it has cleared after a couple of days.

Can EuroMillions winners remain anonymous?

‘All winners are anonymous,’ Andy confirmed, ‘This is the default position for all lottery winners.’

Andy also impresses that any publicity surrounding a winner is a personal choice and there is no set media schedule – every winner is different.

‘It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.

‘Sometimes we go to a winner’s home and we’ve already had media enquiries before we even get there because the winner wants to celebrate their win and mark it publicly,’ Andy explained.

‘Often the rule of thumb tends to be the higher the amount of money the more likely the winner will be to take publicity.’

However, if a winner does choose to keep their newfound wealth a secret, then Andy and his team are the only ones to know about the win.

He says: ‘It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.’

Is your spouse entitled to your lottery winnings?

When it comes to the decision to keep a lottery win a secret or tell the whole world, you’d think that either way, one of the people to definitely be in the loop would be the winner’s partner or spouse.

But, should you want to keep your newfound wealth entirely to yourself, the National Lottery certainly isn’t going to tell you otherwise.

‘A National Lottery win belongs to the signatories of the relevant validation paperwork. How a winner(s) chooses to share (or not) winnings is their personal decision,’ Elanor Corbett, PR Executive at The National Lottery confirmed to Metro.co.uk.

Are EuroMillions winnings taxable?

‘There is no tax on the win itself, but if the win produces an income through interest, then that will be taxed as part of your normal income tax,’ Andy explained.

Does EuroMillions money go to charity?

‘The only way the EuroMillions jackpot would go to National Lottery Good Causes is if the jackpot is won in a draw but, for whatever reason, the ticket-holder does not then subsequently come forward to claim,’ Elanor told us.

‘Unclaimed prizes have a maximum of 180 days to be claimed from the date of the winning draw. After that, the money plus the interest it has generated whilst it is held in trust, is passed over to National Lottery Good Causes.

‘Each week, The National Lottery raises around £30M for Good Causes because every time a National Lottery ticket is bought a proportion of the ticket sale automatically goes to National Lottery Good Causes.’

What have EuroMillions winners bought in the past?

While every EuroMillions winner is different, all lottery winners who receive over £50,000 are visited by a Winner’s Advisor after they call to claim their prize.

For those who are lucky enough to win around £1 million or more, two or three weeks after they receive their money, the Lottery set up a meeting between the winner and a financial and legal advisor.

During this follow-up meeting, big money winners are given free legal and financial advice on how best to manage their money in order to achieve what they want with it.

Andy’s top piece of advice to any winners he deals with? Take your time.

‘You have to remember that plans will change over time, which is why we urge people not to do anything too quickly because your attitude will change over time as you become more comfortable with the wealth,’ Andy said.

However, despite the free advice offered to winners from the advisory team and the legal and financial professionals, Andy makes it clear that once the money arrives in a winner’s bank account: ‘It’s up to them what they do with it from then on.’

‘It’s their money so we are careful not to tell them what to do with it.’

In the past, people who have gone public with their incredible National Lottery wins have chosen to spend their cash on new houses, cars, holidays and on their family and friends.

There have been stories of winners, such as one of the UK’s youngest Euromillions winners Callie Rogers, who ‘lost’ most of her money with quick spending – but Andy insists that this is a rarity:

‘The people who spend the money too quickly are a very, very small percentage.’

‘The vast majority of winners are very conservative – they have been blessed with a huge amount of money and they want to protect it.’

This article was first published on December 7, 2024.

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A dad nearly missed out on bagging a cool £1 million after leaving the winning lottery ticket in his car and forgetting to check it.

Darren Burfitt, 44, from Swansea, had been reminded by friends and relatives to look after an appeal went out searching for a missing millionaire following the Euromillions draw on October 18.

One lucky player could win the biggest lottery jackpot ever if they scoop the top prize in Friday’s draw – a staggering £202 million.

The golf club greenkeeper said: ‘I had a few tickets in the central console of my car – it is where I always keep them for safety and I just hadn’t got round to checking them.

‘When my son asked for a packet of crisps I didn’t want to open a new bag – we often end up with half open bags of crisps and I knew there was a packet which he hadn’t finished in the car so I said I would pop out and get this one for him.

‘I decided to grab my National Lottery tickets at the same time, went back into the house and started to scan each one on The National Lottery app on my phone.’

Darren, whose tickets had been stashed in his grey Citroen DS4, said he was made up when one of the tickets pinged as he scanned it and discovered he had won £3.60.

‘One of the tickets was particularly creased so I thought I would leave that one until the end,’ he added.

‘It was so crumpled it wouldn’t scan, so I had to bring up the draw details and read the results.

‘I couldn’t quite believe it when I did. In fact, I still cannot believe it now.

‘I just kept looking at the date and then the matching EuroMillions Millionaire Maker code – and then the date and the code again – I just could not comprehend what I was seeing.’

The excitement briefly gave way to a sense of dread when Darren realised he had left the car unlocked for the past four months and anyone could have dipped in and swiped his prize.

‘My car is honestly a shed on wheels, held together with mud,’ he said.

‘It has almost no value, so I never bother to lock it! I dread to think what could have happened to that winning ticket.’

Darren’s wife, Gemma, a teaching assistant, was away overnight when he discovered his win.

He said: ‘When I called Gemma my voice was shaking so much, she was convinced something had happened to one of the children.

‘I said no – we have won one million pounds. But she just wouldn’t believe me.’

The couple, who also have a six-year-old daughter, are now excitedly planning their future and have their sights set on buying their first home together. 

Darren also wants a new pick-up truck to replace his car which is proving unreliable for the family.

He said: ‘I keep dreaming of a trip to see the Ashes in Australia – but a pick-up truck is first on the list as my car is literally falling apart.

‘The kids will love the pick-up and it will enable us to go on even more adventures as a family.’

Gemma, 34, added: ‘I just could never imagine having this much money – it is an unreal feeling.

‘I literally have to keep pinching myself – thinking it is a dream which I will wake up from.

‘We love our lives and enjoy great caravan holidays but this just takes things to another level and allows us to do even more as a family.

‘It changes everything and we can finally buy a home of our own. It is going to give us so much security for our future and our children’s future.’

Darren, originally from Burnley, bought his winning EuroMillions ticket from Morrisons Daily in Penllergaer for the draw on 18th October 2024 on their way to a family holiday.

The couple were speaking ahead of tomorrow’s EuroMillions jackpot that could see history being made, as the nation’s biggest-ever National Lottery winner could be crowned.

The estimated jackpot for Friday night’s draw is estimated to be an astounding £202 million.

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The biggest lottery win ever is up for grabs in this Friday’s EuroMillions draw, with one lucky ticket-holder possibly pocketing a colossal £202 million.

It would make for the biggest ever jackpot – eclipsing the £195 million won by an anonymous UK player in July 2022.

Just two months earlier, Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won a then record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10, 2022.

The UK’s third biggest win came after an anonymous ticket-holder scooped the £177 million jackpot in the draw on November 26 last year.

No-one won the £182 million EuroMillions jackpot on Tuesday, meaning the top prize rolls over into Friday’s draw.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at National Lottery operator Allwyn, said: ‘This Friday night promises to be a massive one for EuroMillions players, as the country’s biggest ever winner could be made.

‘Get your tickets early as there is an astounding estimated jackpot of £202 million up for grabs. A single UK winner of this jaw-dropping prize would be crowned The National Lottery’s biggest winner of all time.

‘This colossal amount of money would make any lucky ticket-holder richer than some of the UK’s biggest and richest names, such as Harry Styles, Adele and Harry Kane.’

It would be the third UK EuroMillions jackpot this year, after one ticket-holder came forward for their £83 million prize in January, and another scooped a £65 million jackpot last month.

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EuroMillions winner Adrian Bayford has scrapped plans to build a children’s theme park on his country estate.

The 54-year-old former postman won a £148 million jackpot with his then-wife Gillian in 2012, before their relationship fell apart.

After building a vineyard the size of six football pitched, Bayford wanted to go even bigger with his Horseheath Lodge estate in Cambridgeshire.

Plans included the demolition of six farm buildings so a train ride, renewable energy-themed play barn, maze and car park could be built.

But the latest plans appeared too ambitious, even for an estate that once hosted Elizabeth I and her entourage.

It would just be far too ‘urban’ for a country house 19km southeast of Cambridge, according to responses to a public consultation.

‘The proposal lacks integration into what remains a site of rural character’, said a submission from BNE Urban Design.

‘Long views towards the development is of particular importance as well as the total composition needing to retain a high percentage of softness in the landscape between the various built-form elements.

‘Through car dependency and increased footfall associated with new retail uses the character shifts substantially away from a rural character.’

A 90-vehicle carpark on the site would drive ‘excess traffic’ that ‘would increase the risk to safety’, the parish council said.

Its location on a floodplain would also bring ‘a risk of surface water flooding’ due to no apparent connection for ‘foul water or surface water drainage’.

Development of the site could also potentially have harmed historic artefacts buried underground.

Cambridgeshire Council’s archaeological officer said: ‘The development
area has potential to contain prehistoric remains with a cropmarks indicating the presence of ring ditch to the adjacent north.’

Just two weeks after these responses were submitted, Bayford withdrew his application.

He hasn’t refiled since, suggesting an end to his dreams of having his very own themepark.

Bayford moved into the the £6.5million Grade II listed Georgian house, with 189 acres of land, 13 years ago.

At one point, he was so lonely, he would spend his days locked up inside, eating 50 Cornish pasties a week.

He reportedly moved out in 2019 to be closer to his kids and ex-wife Gillian.

The couple had been full of smiles when spraying champagne to celebrate their EuroMillions win in 2012. Their jackpot is the sixth largest lottery prize in UK history.

After splitting up, Adrian launched a relationship with ex-horse groom Samantha Burbidge, who is 16 years younger than him.

He also dated waitress Lisa Kemp, but she dumped him after discovering saucy messages sent to his ex Marta Jarosz.

Now he is with Tracey Biles, a 46-year-old said to be the mastermind behind the vineyard and theme park plans.

Gillian herself has been rather unlucky with love.

Convicted of threatening her ex-boyfriend Gavin Innes during a trial in 2020, she pushed, shouted at and struggled with the domestic abuse charity worker on two separate occasions in October 2017.

Last year she ditched her new husband Brian Deans after the convicted fraudster ‘threw money left, right and centre’ on expensive cars, watches, and trips with friends.

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Five consecutive rollovers have hiked the EuroMillions jackpot to £166,000,000, one of the highest ever up for grabs.

A total of 2,393,415 people won prizes in Tuesday’s EuroMillions draw – more than 700,000 of them in the UK.

But none of them bagged the £151million lottery jackpot, meaning it has rolled over for a fifth time in a row.

It started as £14million on Tuesday, March 4. Heading into this Friday’s draw, the jackpot now stands at £166million.

Should anyone in the UK win it, it would be the country’s sixth biggest lottery win of all time.

One lucky ticketholder won £177,000,000 when the EuroMillions numbers were drawn last November.

It instantly became the third biggest win in history.

The record was set, broken, and nearly broken again, over a four-month period in 2022.

Joe and Jess Thwaite started the record-breaking trend thanks to a EuroMillions Lucky Dip ticket bought on the The National Lottery app, ‘because it’s easier’, on the very day of the May 10 draw.

The Gloucestershire couple won more than £184million. ‘I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do’, communications sales engineer Joe said.

‘I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up so I just laid there for what seemed like forever.

‘I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!’

Just two months later, an anonymous ticketholder won nearly £198million – the highest amount ever won.

Another two months later, a £172million jackpot was claimed by a lucky ticketholder, who chose to stay anonymous.

Most prizes are far from as lucrative. More than half the victorious ticketholders won just £3.10 in the latest draw on Tuesday.

One person in the UK won £28,000. Another two won £241,000.

Just a single ticketholder bagged the £1million UK Millionaire Maker prize.

The small-time winners may even be breathing a sigh of relief given the events following a life-changing jackpot aren’t always good.

When Adrian and Gillian Bayford won £148million in 2012, they were the third biggest winners of all time – a title that swiftly withered away, much like their happiness.

They each pursued a string of turbulent relationships, with Gillian convicted of threatening an ex-boyfriend, and Adrian turning to a diet of 50 Cornish pasties delivered to his mansion each week to cope with loneliness.

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The EuroMillions jackpot has reached a whopping £149,000,000 after rolling over for the fourth time.

With no winners in last night’s draw, the total has rolled again giving players a chance to be very, very rich on Tuesday, when the next draw takes place.

To walk away with the big bucks, you’ll need to match the five main numbers and two lucky stars.

Although no one walked off with the jackpot yesterday, there were lots of smaller prize winners, so do check your numbers if you haven’t already.

They winning numbers were 08, 10, 33, 35, 49. The Lucky Stars were 02, 09.

The EuroMillions draw takes place every Tuesday and Friday and tickets costs £2.50.

This includes automatic entry into the UK Millionaire Maker draw, which creates new UK millionaires every week.

Last month a single UK EuroMillions ticket-holder scooped £65,341,620, while another UK ticket-holder won an incredible £83,474,081.80 on January 24.

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A single UK ticket-holder has claimed their £65,341,620 EuroMillions jackpot.

National Lottery operator Allwyn confirmed the lucky winner had come forward following the draw on Valentine’s Day.

No more details about the ticket-holder have been released.

They are the second UK EuroMillions jackpot winner of 2025, scooped an incredible £83,474,081.80 on January 24. They chose to remain anonymous.

Another 14 UK players won £1 million each in EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw on Friday evening – with seven yet to claim their prize.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at Allwyn, said: ‘It’s been an astonishing weekend of millionaire-making, which promises to keep me and my team very busy.

‘So many big winners are now lined up to receive their prizes, but we are still missing seven from 14 EuroMillions millionaires from Friday night’s special draw.

‘We’re asking everyone to check their tickets and we’re very much looking forward to meeting all the lucky winners soon.’

The winning main EuroMillions numbers were 04, 14, 31, 36 and 38 and the winning EuroMillions Lucky Star numbers were 03 and 10.

Just one person matched all five main numbers and both Lucky Star numbers to scoop the jackpot of more than £65 million.

The Millionaire Maker Selection draw was:

MVXX07807, TTWX85392, ZTXH30125, MTXD66106, TVXM66825, HVXX35391, VVXJ08441, VVXJ00395, TVZC41873, XVXN25566, TTXB49420, JTXJ35656, TVXL10345, HVXZ64951

Numbers Lucky Stars Winners Prize:

5 2 1 £65,341,620.50

5 1 2 £0

5 0 5 £30,023.90

4 2 4 £1,039.00

4 1 770 £111.80

3 2 1,735 £52.40

4 0 1,803 £35.40

2 2 28,237 £11.30

3 1 36,861 £9.60

3 0 84,809 £7.80

1 2 158,678 £5.00

2 1 572,136 £4.40

2 0 1,322,764 £3.00

Tonight’s National Lottery Thunderball winning numbers are 11, 13, 24, 25, 36.

The Thunderball is 04.

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Someone in the UK is having an extremely lucky Thursday.

National Lottery operator Allwyn confirmed one ticketholder has just successfully claimed a more than £83million EuroMillions jackpot.

The lucky winner held on to their ticket for 13 days after the January 24 draw, but they’ve now claimed their life-changing £83,474,081.80 prize.

This is the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2025, and it’s the 23rd biggest National Lottery win of all time.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at Allwyn, said: ‘This is absolutely incredible news, and we are delighted that this jaw-dropping EuroMillions jackpot prize has now been claimed.

‘Everyone dreams of that huge win when they buy their EuroMillions ticket – and for this lucky ticketholder this dream has become a reality.

‘Imagine all the possibilities that are now within their grasp.

‘We will now focus on supporting this ticketholder through the process so they can start enjoying their win as soon as possible.’

It’s a strong start for National Lottery winnings in 2025, following on from last year where the third-biggest jackpot ever won by a UK player was scooped up in November.

That anonymous lucky winner walked away with £177million, while Richard and Debbie Nuttall won £61million in January, and two other anonymous ticketholders won £24million and £33million respectively back in July.

Now someone has come forward to claim the £83million jackpot, Allwyn will validate and verify the claim to make sure all of the Lottery rules have been followed.

Once the claim has been validated and the prize is paid out, the ticketholder will then decide whether or not to go public with their good news.

The National Lottery is gearing up for Valentine’s Day, with the February 14th EuroMillions draw awarding 14 £1million prizes.

Plus, anyone who buys two or more entries to the draw will be entered automatically into a separate draw for a chance to win one of 14 holidays for two to the Maldives.

But winning the lottery isn’t all sunshine and rainbows: past winners have said there is a ‘dark side’ to suddenly becoming very rich.

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A lucky person in the UK has won a whopping £83.4million on the EuroMillions – but has yet to come forward.

The prize was won during last Friday’s EuroMillions draw on January 24 and was bought in a shop.

Allwyn, the operator of National Lottery, has now urged the new millionaire to check their numbers and come forward to claim the top prize.

The lucky person managed to match all five main numbers and both Lucky Star numbers to scoop the jackpot.

The winning numbers were 2, 11, 19, 30, 49 and the Lucky Star numbers were 3 and 8.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at Allwyn, said: ‘I can’t believe there’s one lucky ticket-holder out there who hasn’t claimed this incredible EuroMillions jackpot prize – there are 83,474,081 reasons for them to check their ticket straight away!

‘It’s only been six days since the EuroMillions draw but, we’re waiting with bated breath to pay out this latest huge winner. We’re urging all EuroMillions players to check their paper tickets to see if they are our missing multi-millionaire.

‘This is our first EuroMillions UK jackpot winner of 2025, following on from an incredible 2024 which saw four UK EuroMillions jackpots won, including a £177M win by an anonymous single ticket-holder in November, which was the third largest-ever UK win.’

The winner needs to act now because there is a two-week deadline for major prizes over £50,000 won in shops.

If a valid claim is not received, the ticket that was purchased is released back into the area.

This is not the first time somebody has won a massive jackpot on the EuroMillions.

Joe, 49, a communications sales engineer, and Jess Thwaite, 44, the business manager of a hairdressing salon, are the lucky pair of Britons who won an eye-watering £184 million in 2022.

The parents-of-two at the time said the win ‘gives us time to dream which we haven’t had before’.

Lucky pair Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne, Lancashire, were named as the winners of a £61 million EuroMillions jackpot in January 2024.

The couple were in Fuerteventura celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary when an email from the National Lottery popped through telling them of the exciting news.

Once a person’s claim has been validated they can decide to go public with their win or keep it private.

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A single UK ticket-holder has won Friday’s £83 million EuroMillions jackpot, National Lottery operator Allwyn said.

Tonight’s National Lottery EuroMillions winning numbers are: 02, 11, 19, 30, 49.

The Lucky Stars are: 03, 08.

The winning player matched all five main numbers and both the lucky star numbers to win £83,474,081.80.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, said: ‘Amazing, what a fantastic night for a single UK ticket-holder who has scooped tonight’s £83 million EuroMillions jackpot.

‘This lucky winner represents the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2025, what a way to start the year.

‘Players are urged to check their tickets and to give us a call if they think they are tonight’s lucky winner.’

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The EuroMillions winner Adrian Bayford has embarked on his latest venture at his luxury country manor.

The 53-year-old rose to fame with his then-wife Gillian after bagging the £148,000,000 EuroMillions win in 2012.

His eventful life has kept him in the headlines since as the ex-postman has been busy dating and coming up with new business ideas.

In his latest move, Mr Bayford has set up a party business on his Cambridgeshire estate, the Sun reports.

Earlier, Mr Bayford revealed his plans to build a 20-acre children’s theme park on the sprawling grounds.

Mr Bayford, who has two children, envisioned the theme park with an educational flare to it such as train rides, a renewable energy-themed play barn and a maze along with other activities.

Previously, his new fiancée Tracey Biles, 46, inspired him to start a vineyard at the manor, while he has also sold Christmas trees from his front lawn.

Now Mr Bayford and his team have erected a huge marquee to host New York-themed events with a capacity for up to 1,500 partygoers.

Partygoers can get a glimpse of his lifestyle by attending the ‘Lost in New York’ parties costing £110 per ticket.

Guests will be treated to a three-course meal, entertainment and a disco.

Mr Bayford’s company The Christmas Parties Unlimited said revellers will venture from ‘the beauty of Central Park to the bright lights of New York City, with some well-known Home Alone inspired music through the evening.’

After getting dined, guests are ‘off to the most legendary NYC nightclub of the disco-era for a Studio 54 themed after-party.’

‘With our live DJ playing music from all eras, everyone will be up and dancing before you know it,’ it adds.

Mr Bayford, who is a music fan, has previously hosted heavy metal festivals at the manor, according to the outlet.

He has also been busy dating since his break-up with ex-wife Gillian a year after the jackpot win which the pair split.

He got engaged with Sam Burbidge in January 2014 but they went their separate ways in 2017. Mr Bayford was not single for long after meeting waitress Lisa Kemp, in December 2017.

Now Mr Bayford has found happiness with his old friend Mr Biles who is said to be behind the plans for the children’s theme park.

The pair are due to marry soon after Mr Bayford reportedly proposed last Christmas.

His friends told the Sun earlier the millionaire is a ‘real romantic’ at heart.

EuroMillions is played across Europe, including in the UK, Ireland, France and Portugal.

If you’re dreaming of the big win like the ex-postman, you might be disappointed as the odds of winning it are just one in 139 million.

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More than £8,000,000 in National Lottery jackpots remains unclaimed, and time is running out.

Christmas Day will see ticketholders in with a chance of bagging a £15million ‘Must Be Won’ jackpot.

But numerous lotto prizes worth a total of £8,064,694 have gone unclaimed since September. This includes four £1million jackpots, and £10,000 a month for 30 years.

That’s worth £3,600,000 over its lifetime. Also among the unclaimed prizes are wins worth tens of thousands of pounds.

If no one comes forward to claim them before the 180-day deadline, the money will fund National Lottery-backed projects across the UK.

What are the unclaimed prizes and where were the tickets bought?

EuroMillions 1769 – September 3, 2024

The winner of this £1,000,000 prize bought their winning ticket in Lambeth. Their code is MMVJ 92833 and they have until March 2, 2025, to claim their win.

EuroMillions 1778 – October 2, 2024

The winner of this £1,000,000 prize bought their ticket in Bury. Their code is TXBP 94278 and they have until April 2, 2025, to claim their win.

EuroMillions 1782 – October 18, 2024

The winner of this £1,000,000 prize bought their ticket in Swansea. Their code is JDDF 38095 and they have until April 16, 2025, to claim their win.

Set For Life 586 – October 24, 2024

The winner of this £10,000 a month for 30 years prize bought their ticket in Sevenoaks. It’s worth a total of £3,600,000. They have until April 22, 2025, to claim their win.

EuroMillions 1787 – November 5, 2024

The winner of this £84,935.20 prize bought their ticket in Thanet. They have until May 5, 2025, to claim their win.

EuroMillions 1791 – November 19, 2024

The winner of this £321,840.60 prize bought their ticket in Winchester. They have until May 18, 2025, to claim their win.

EuroMillions 1796 – December 6, 2024

The winner of this £57,918.40 prize bought their ticket in Hillingdon. They have until June 4, 2025, to claim their win.

Lotto 3022 – December 7, 2024

The winner of this £1,000,000 prize bought their ticket in Sefton. They have until June 5, 2025, to claim their win.

Andy Carter, Senior Winners Advisor at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery said: ‘What’s the perfect gift at Christmas?

‘We all have our own ideas of what we’d like to receive as a present but, surely getting your hands on a big National Lottery win trumps the traditional pair of socks or box of chocolates.

‘With millions of pounds worth of prizes that have yet to be claimed plus a £15M Lotto Must Be Won jackpot up for grabs on Christmas Day, there is every opportunity for National Lottery players to give themselves a once-in-a-lifetime gift…just be sure to check your tickets and claim your prize.

‘On Christmas Day, even if no ticket-holder were to match all six numbers to scoop the special £15M Lotto jackpot, because it is a Must Be Won draw, players will win big as the jackpot will roll down to boost all the other prize tiers.’

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For lottery winners, the moment they realise they’ve won, their lives are never the same.

Metro sat down with the UK’s current biggest lottery winners Joe and Jess Thwaite – who scooped up May 2022’s EuroMillions jackpot of £184 million – to find out how their lives changed.

The UK is already no stranger to jackpot winners. Patrick and Frances Connolly from Northern Ireland won a £114.9M one New Year’s Day, while Ade Goodchild banked £71M in March 2019, to name a few.

And couple Colin and Chris Weir from Largs won a whopping sum of £161M on EuroMillions in 2011.

But what happens after that jaw-dropping moment when, hands shaking as you double and triple check the number on your ticket, you realise that you’re not dreaming and you have actually won?

Andy Carter, a Senior Winner’s Advisor at Camelot, has spent the last 13 years helping people who have become millionaires overnight to come to terms with their new reality.

He spoke to Metro.co.uk about what really happens after someone realises they’ve won the lottery.

What happens when you win the EuroMillions

If you find yourself in the almost impossible-to-imagine situation of having a winning lottery ticket, the first thing to do (once you’ve finished screaming into a pillow or jumping up and down) is to turn the ticket over and find the phone number to ring.

Andy explained: ‘If you were to win the EuroMillions tomorrow night, you would check the ticket, ring the number on the back of the ticket and that would put you through to a lottery line. They would then get a member of my team to call you back.’

This first phone call to the National Lottery call centre is important, because it sets in motion the crucial steps that all lottery winners must follow to claim their prize.

How does the National Lottery contact winners?

From the moment you realise you’ve won to actually getting the money, winners are looked after every step of the way by a dedicated team of National Lottery ‘Winner’s Advisors’ like Andy.

It is their job to support winners through the entire process so they can begin to enjoy their life-changing win.

Andy, or one of his advisor team members, will call lottery winners back as quickly as possible once they receive news that a EuroMillions prize has been claimed.

After the initial phone call with the winners’ advisor team, Andy or one of his colleagues will visit the winner, in person.

Ideally, you’ll get a visit the next day, or failing that as soon as the winner can allow.

How long after winning the lottery do you get the money?

During the home visit by the Winners Advisory team, a number of checks will be carried out to verify the winner.

‘Within half an hour I can tell if someone has won the money,’ Andy revealed.

As well as checking the winning ticket is legit, Andy and his team are there to answer any questions that the winners may have and, as you can imagine for someone who has just become a (sometimes multi) millionaire, they have more than a few.

‘Sometimes we get to people’s houses and we don’t even open the computer for an hour because we just sit there and answer people’s questions,’ Andy said. ‘This could sometimes last all day.’

As soon as the winning ticket is verified and the ID of the winner confirmed, the Lottery can pay the winner their money on that very day.

However, once the money is paid into an elected bank account, it takes two days for the money to process before it can be withdrawn.

This means that the longest you have to wait before getting the money is around three days between discovering you’ve won the lottery and actually being able to spend the cash.

Where do lottery winners put their money?

Winners have no choice but to have their winning sum deposited in one, single bank account by the Lottery – so there’s no stuffing it under your bedroom mattress or locking it in your personal safe.

The winner can choose the bank they would like to hold the money with, but a brand new account with that bank is set up – usually with a private arm of that bank who specialise with dealing with large sums of money of this kind.

This bank account can be open for as long as the winner needs it to be, or they can move the money to other accounts once it has cleared after a couple of days.

Can EuroMillions winners remain anonymous?

‘All winners are anonymous,’ Andy confirmed, ‘This is the default position for all lottery winners.’

Andy also impresses that any publicity surrounding a winner is a personal choice and there is no set media schedule – every winner is different.

‘It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.

‘Sometimes we go to a winner’s home and we’ve already had media enquiries before we even get there because the winner wants to celebrate their win and mark it publicly,’ Andy explained.

‘Often the rule of thumb tends to be the higher the amount of money the more likely the winner will be to take publicity.’

However, if a winner does choose to keep their newfound wealth a secret, then Andy and his team are the only ones to know about the win.

He says: ‘It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.’

Is your spouse entitled to your lottery winnings?

When it comes to the decision to keep a lottery win a secret or tell the whole world, you’d think that either way, one of the people to definitely be in the loop would be the winner’s partner or spouse.

But, should you want to keep your newfound wealth entirely to yourself, the National Lottery certainly isn’t going to tell you otherwise.

‘A National Lottery win belongs to the signatories of the relevant validation paperwork. How a winner(s) chooses to share (or not) winnings is their personal decision,’ Elanor Corbett, PR Executive at The National Lottery confirmed to Metro.co.uk.

Are EuroMillions winnings taxable?

‘There is no tax on the win itself, but if the win produces an income through interest, then that will be taxed as part of your normal income tax,’ Andy explained.

Does EuroMillions money go to charity?

‘The only way the EuroMillions jackpot would go to National Lottery Good Causes is if the jackpot is won in a draw but, for whatever reason, the ticket-holder does not then subsequently come forward to claim,’ Elanor told us.

‘Unclaimed prizes have a maximum of 180 days to be claimed from the date of the winning draw. After that, the money plus the interest it has generated whilst it is held in trust, is passed over to National Lottery Good Causes.

‘Each week, The National Lottery raises around £30M for Good Causes because every time a National Lottery ticket is bought a proportion of the ticket sale automatically goes to National Lottery Good Causes.’

What have EuroMillions winners bought in the past?

While every EuroMillions winner is different, all lottery winners who receive over £50,000 are visited by a Winner’s Advisor after they call to claim their prize.

For those who are lucky enough to win around £1 million or more, two or three weeks after they receive their money, the Lottery set up a meeting between the winner and a financial and legal advisor.

During this follow-up meeting, big money winners are given free legal and financial advice on how best to manage their money in order to achieve what they want with it.

Andy’s top piece of advice to any winners he deals with? Take your time.

‘You have to remember that plans will change over time, which is why we urge people not to do anything too quickly because your attitude will change over time as you become more comfortable with the wealth,’ Andy said.

However, despite the free advice offered to winners from the advisory team and the legal and financial professionals, Andy makes it clear that once the money arrives in a winner’s bank account: ‘It’s up to them what they do with it from then on.’

‘It’s their money so we are careful not to tell them what to do with it.’

In the past, people who have gone public with their incredible National Lottery wins have chosen to spend their cash on new houses, cars, holidays and on their family and friends.

There have been stories of winners, such as one of the UK’s youngest Euromillions winners Callie Rogers, who ‘lost’ most of her money with quick spending – but Andy insists that this is a rarity:

‘The people who spend the money too quickly are a very, very small percentage.’

‘The vast majority of winners are very conservative – they have been blessed with a huge amount of money and they want to protect it.’

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The winner of a £177,033,699.20 EuroMillions jackpot has been found in the UK.

It’s the third highest lottery prize ever won the UK, coming behind two jackpots won in 2022.

Now the winner of Tuesday’s draw needs to validate their ticket before they can bag the money.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, said: ‘We are delighted that we have received a claim and will now ensure the ticket-holder gets all the support they need.

‘This is a truly amazing win, and we will focus on guiding them through the process and helping them to start to enjoy their life-changing win.

‘The team here has huge experience of guiding all of our lucky National Lottery winners through the first steps in their journey of embracing their win.’

Four people have won EuroMillions jackpots in the UK this year, including the anonymous winners of jackpots worth £24million and £33million in July.

Richard and Debbie Nuttall, from Lancashire, scooped £61million after sharing a £123million jackpot in January. They initially thought they had won £2.60.

This latest winner’s identity is yet to be revealed, and they may well choose to stay anonymous after the prize money has been paid.

Many prefer to stay out of the public eye, including the winner of the UK’s all-time biggest lottery jackpot, worth £195,707,000.

Whoever they are, they broke the record just two months after Jess and Joe Thwaite, from Gloucester, set it with their haul of £184,262,899.

They had bought a EuroMillions Lucky Dip ticket on The National Lottery app, ‘because it’s easier’, on the very day of the May 10, 2022, draw.

Allwyn offers financial and legal advisors, private banking and emotional support to National Lottery winners.

Many winners go on to buy their dream homes, treat family and friends, go on holiday, and support their local community by setting up charities.

One bought their favourite football club, while another is building a theme park. Others’ lives, however, spiralled into chaos.

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One lucky ticketholder won £177,000,000 when the EuroMillions numbers were drawn on Tuesday night – but it’s only the third biggest jackpot of all time in the UK.

The record was set and broken – and nearly broken again – in the space of just four months in 2022.

Last night’s draw knocks the lowest of that year’s big wins to the fourth place in a ranking of the highest sums of all time.

Although £177million doesn’t quite nab the top spot, it would be a truly lifechanging sum – if and when someone claims the prize.

But as some lottery winners have found, that change isn’t always good.

So who are the 10 reigning EuroMillions champions who’ve won the biggest ever UK lottery jackpots?

10. Frances and Patrick Connolly – £114,969,775

Originally from Northern Ireland, Patrick and Frances Connolly were the fourth biggest winners when they it the jackpot on New Year’s Day, 2019.

They splashed their cash on a lot of things – Jaguar, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo cars, and a County Durham Mansion with seven acres of land, and gifts worth £60million for their family and friends.

A grant-giving charity – PFC Trust – they founded funds community groups in Hartlepool, where they moved for work in 1990.

It’s become such a backbone of the charity sector, scammers masqueraded as the Connolly couple to offer cash to 50 people if they hit 10,000 subscribers on a bogus YouTube channel.

But the very first thing they bought with their winnings was a pair of M&S underwear

9. Anonymous – £121,328,187

The identity of the person who won this April 24, 2018 Superdraw jackpot has never been revealed after their chose to stay anonymous.

8. Anonymous – £122,555,350

This jackpot started as just £14million before rolling over all the way to the all-time spot of the UK’s ninth biggest lottery prize on April 2, 2021.

The winner, however, has kept their identity a secret.

7. Anonymous – £123,458,008

Another anonymous winner bagged this Superdraw jackpot on June 11, 2019, after it rolled over from a previous draw.

6. Adrian and Gillian Bayford – £148,656,000

The life of a lottery winner isn’t all glitz and glam. Sometimes it’s a catastrophe – and Adrian and Gillian Bayford can attest to that.

Since winning in August 2012, the married couple are no longer married.

Gillian now has a conviction for threatening her ex-boyfriend, domestic abuse charity worker Gavin Innes, who she pushed and shouted at in 2017.

She then married convicted fraudster Brian Deans, before ditching him because he begged for more and more money after blowing the monthly allowance she gave him on cars, watches and trips with friends.

Adrian, meanwhile, turned to eating 50 Cornish pasties a day to cope with loneliness after being dumped by younger women, one of whom he dated while sending saucy messages to an ex.

The 53-year-old since partnered up with fiancée, 46-year-old Tracey Biles, 46, who’s encouraged him to plant a vineyard the size of six football pitches at his estate on the border of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

Now, they’re planning to turn 20 acres of the vast estate into a children’s theme park with a train ride and maze.

5. Colin and Chris Weir – £161,653,000

Within a decade of winning the EuroMillions draw, Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, had divorced after 38 years of marriage.

Colin died of sepsis and an acute kidney injury a few months later in December 2019, at the age of 71.

By then he had spent half his £80million share of the fortune on cars, property and a controlling stake in his favourite football club, Partick Thistle.

The former TV cameraman also donated millions to the Scottish National Party and the pro-independence Yes campaign ahead of the 2014 referendum.

He left behind £212,000 worth of furniture, jewellery and artworks, a £10,000 Bentley Arnage, a Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a Mercedes Benz E Class Estate, a Mercedes Benz V Class people carrier, and a pot of petty cash containing £263.90.

After the split, Chris, previously a psychiatric nurse, kept their Frognal House mansion, which they bought for £3.5million after a 10-minute viewing.

She sold the property in Troon, Ayrshire, for £2.3million in 2019.

They had also set up the Weir Charitable Trust, which funded projects across Scotland.

4. Anonymous – £170,221,000

This EuroMillions jackpot had to go somewhere when it reached the stag of a Must Be Won draw.

It had already sat at the €190million cap for the maximum five draws by the time one UK ticketholder bagged it.

They chose to stay anonymous.

3. Anonymous – £171,815,297

An anonymous ticketholder claimed their EuroMillions jackpot within 48 hours of the numbers being drawn on September 23, 2022.

It was the third big win in the UK that year.

2. Joe and Jess Thwaite – £184,262,899

A new wardrobe and drawers for their bedroom were the first buys for Gloucestershire couple Joe and Jess Thwaite.

They had bought a EuroMillions Lucky Dip ticket on The National Lottery app, ‘because it’s easier’, on the very day of the May 10, 2022, draw.

A communications sales engineer, and the business manager of a hairdressing salon, they were the first of three big winners that year.

Joe saw they’d won when he woke early the next morning. He said: ‘I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do.

‘I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up so I just laid there for what seemed like forever.

‘I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!’

When the alarm finally rang, Joe turned to Jess and said: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’

1. Anonymous – £195,707,000

Just two months after Joe and Jess Thwaite set the record for all-time biggest jackpot, their crown was taken by a winner who chose to keep their identity private.

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There’s someone out there who is £177,000,000 richer – and doesn’t know it yet.

A lucky ticket holder in the UK won the third-biggest National Lottery jackpot of all time on Tuesday night.

The hunt is on for the person who bought that incredibly lucky ticket, so they can claim their huge prize.

Andy Carter, senior winners adviser at Allwyn, said: ‘Wow, it has been a truly incredible night for a single UK ticket holder who has scooped tonight’s jaw-dropping £177 million EuroMillions jackpot.

‘The win has landed them a spot on The National Lottery’s Rich List, as they have become the third biggest National Lottery winner of all time.

‘What a wonderful win right before Christmas, and we cannot wait to pay out this amazing prize.

‘Players are urged to check their tickets and to give us a call if they think they are tonight’s lucky winner.’

The winning numbers were 07, 11, 25, 31 and 40, with Lucky Stars 09, 12.

It’s only been a few days since a mystery winner claimed a massive £2.6million Lotto jackpot, nearly two weeks after the winning numbers had been announced.

In that case, two ticket holders won and split the £5.2million jackpot, with the first claiming their half of the prize pretty quickly – and who could blame them?

Most lottery wins result in lifechanging amounts of money – as these previous winners explain – but it’s not all plain sailing as some winners can come across problems after claiming their win.

The winner will be wealthier than former One Direction member Harry Styles and heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua, who are both worth £175million, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

On July 19, 2022, an anonymous UK ticket-holder scooped the record EuroMillions jackpot of £195 million – the biggest National Lottery win of all time.

Tonight’s winner is just behind Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, who scooped a then record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10, 2022.

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The winners of a £114.9million EuroMillions jackpot have revealed the incredibly mundane thing they bought first after scooping the jackpot.

Patrick and Frances Connolly from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, won the £114,969,775 on New Year’s Day in 2019.

It was the fourth biggest UK lottery prize ever claimed at the time, and the couple have since moved to Hartlepool and have given £60 million to their family and friends.

They also bought a mansion with seven acres of land in County Durham, with the couple’s Jaguar, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo parked outside.

But the first thing Frances, 58, bought with her new fortune was a pack of M&S knickers.

She told The Sun: ‘We left our home with nothing, to keep us safe in case anybody found out about it and came to the house. And they did – within minutes.

‘When we arrived at a hotel in England on Friday night, ahead of the press conference, I had to phone our Fiona and say, “Will you nip down to Marks & Spencer?”. ‘She got a pack of three pairs for 12 quid.’

The couple went on to buy some more luxurious items, with Frances buying her dad a gold pocket watch.

They still do not like to flaunt their cash, with Frances revealing they once turned down an offer to upgrade their flights to first class.

Frances also starts the day off with a swim at her home, where she is joined by her group of friends.

She has also set up two charitable foundations, one named after her mum Kathleen Graham and the PFC trust in Hartlepool.

This has made them busier than ever as the couple attend meetings and travel to and from Ireland where they are doing up a house.

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A EuroMillions player bought a ticket, won a million, and then lost it because they never took their winnings.

In a cautionary tale for all of us if we win a multimillion pound lottery jackpot, they left it too late to claim their cash and now it will be given to charity instead.

It’s a scenario almost as bad as the man who lost millions of pounds of Bitcoin at the bottom of a landfill – and coincidentally it happened just down the road, so the almost-millionaires might even meet in the pub to commiserate.

The winning ticket was bought in in Rhondda Cynon Taf, also near Cardiff in South Wales.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at The National Lottery, said: ‘Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money.

‘However, the money will now add to the £30m raised each week for National Lottery-funded projects.’

If this was us, we’d rather just never know – and presumably this person didn’t, or they would have said something.

But if it was you and you’re only just realising, this list of local projects to have benefitted from lottery funds may soften the blow (or perhaps not):

Whoever bought this ticket lost out, but there are still three big ticket prizes from draws in August and September waiting to be claimed, summing up to £2,350,000.

Two people in London are sleeping on prizes of a million each, one in Bromley and one in Lambeth (Lotto and EuroMillions respectively).

Meanwhile, a Lotto HotPicks player in Birmingham just has to say the word to get their hands on £350,000.

Players have 180 days, which is around six months, from the date of the draw to claim their winnings.

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The entire £133,000,000 EuroMillions jackpot has been won by a single ticketholder who bought their ticket in a local sweet shop.

It’s the second largest jackpot ever won in Spain, coming behind the £159,000,000 won by a single ticketholder in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2017.

Last night’s winning numbers are 4, 8, 16, 17, 20, 1 and 6.

One lucky winner validated the ticket at the Amancio Gozokiak sweetshop in Derio, a town of 7,000 people in the Basque Country of northern Spain.

‘People come here for treats and lottery tickets, for a bit of hope and excitement’, the shop’s owners said.

The identity of the ticketholder is not yet publicly known.

Earlier this year, Lancashire couple Richard and Debbie Nuttall thought they had won £2.60 when they had actually won the £61million EuroMillions jackpot.

Richard said: ‘I went through to Debs and I said we’ve won £2.60 on the lottery and she was like: “Woohoo, we’ll go and have a bacon butty or something with that.”‘

But they soon found out the truth through an email received while celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura.

Richard said: ‘Obviously we were stunned but also very excited at the time, it was almost like Del Boy and Rodney when they come out of Sotheby’s and they start cheering and punching the air, the car was rocking.’

Such lifechanging sums of money can wreak havoc on people’s lives.

Gillian Bayford, who won £148million in 2012, ended up splitting from her husband of five years after he kept begging for more money.

She had given him a generous monthly allowance, but he ‘threw money left, right and centre’ on expensive cars, watches, and trips with friends.

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A cancer survivor says he hopes his luck is on an upward trajectory after winning more than £100,000 in the National Lottery.

Jonathan Aldridge was 17 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, but thankfully after months of grueling radiotherapy he went into remission with no signs of the cancer.

Now 32, Jonathan bought some Lucky Dip tickets earlier this year – and was amazed to find out he’d won a massive £133,173.20.

And now he hopes to repay the support he received from his family during his treatment after winning a EuroMillions jackpot.

Jonathan says he was ‘living a typical teenage lifestyle’ when he found a growth on his neck and was diagnosed with the cancer.

He was ‘receiving particularly aggressive chemotherapy’ at the hospital and was ‘lying awake at night thinking this might be it’, Jonathan said.

‘Throughout I made a promise to myself to stay calm. I wanted to protect my mum from the heartache, so I put on a good show,’ but when he was told he’d have to undergo radiotherapy, he ‘wasn’t confident [he] would make it’.

‘But six harrowing months of treatment later, I was one of the very lucky ones to be told I was in remission, and they couldn’t detect any signs of the cancer,’ he added.

Jonathan, an accountant, said he had undergone a ‘long journey rebuilding my physical and mental health’.

He plans to donate some of his winnings to the Young Lives Versus Cancer charity, using the rest as a deposit for a house.

He explained: ‘I shared the news of my win because hopefully it will show other people who may be going through a tough time that there is hope, and that magic does happen.’

But anyone inspired by Jonathan’s win and hoping to check their luck may have to wait, as the National Lottery app has been facing issues today.

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A cancer survivor says he hopes his luck is on an upward trajectory after winning more than £100,000 in the National Lottery.

Jonathan Aldridge was 17 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, but thankfully after months of grueling radiotherapy he went into remission with no signs of the cancer.

Now 32, Jonathan bought some Lucky Dip tickets earlier this year – and was amazed to find out he’d won a massive £133,173.20.

And now he hopes to repay the support he received from his family during his treatment after winning a EuroMillions jackpot.

Jonathan says he was ‘living a typical teenage lifestyle’ when he found a growth on his neck and was diagnosed with the cancer.

He was ‘receiving particularly aggressive chemotherapy’ at the hospital and was ‘lying awake at night thinking this might be it’, Jonathan said.

‘Throughout I made a promise to myself to stay calm. I wanted to protect my mum from the heartache, so I put on a good show,’ but when he was told he’d have to undergo radiotherapy, he ‘wasn’t confident [he] would make it’.

‘But six harrowing months of treatment later, I was one of the very lucky ones to be told I was in remission, and they couldn’t detect any signs of the cancer,’ he added.

Jonathan, an accountant, said he had undergone a ‘long journey rebuilding my physical and mental health’.

He plans to donate some of his winnings to the Young Lives Versus Cancer charity, using the rest as a deposit for a house.

He explained: ‘I shared the news of my win because hopefully it will show other people who may be going through a tough time that there is hope, and that magic does happen.’

But anyone inspired by Jonathan’s win and hoping to check their luck may have to wait, as the National Lottery app has been facing issues today.

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A midwife who became a millionaire after winning the lottery 10 years ago is still delivering babies.

Ruth Breen was on her lunch break at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary where she works in Wigan on this exact day in 2014 when she found out she’d landed a seven figure sum.

The 45-year-old was flicking through her emails and discovered she’d won £1million on the EuroMillions.

But despite her big win, the mother-of-one still works for the NHS – though she has been able to enjoy exotic holidays to Dubai, St Lucia and Mauritius.

‘An awful lot has changed in the past 10 years but then again, not so much,’ she said.

‘The win came at the most perfect time ever. It allowed me to reduce my working hours, giving me a much better work-life balance.

‘I’m really lucky that I only work part-time. That’s enabled me to spend much more time with my daughter doing fun mum things instead of working flat out for a really really busy service.’

Ruth said she also wanted to carry on working to set a good example to her daughter, who was 11 when she won.

‘We’ve had great holidays, but we’ve tried to keep our feet on the ground and I think working really helps me to do that.,’ she said.

‘The universe gifted me something incredible but you can’t take it for granted, not everybody’s that lucky.’

The community midwife now arrives at her visits in a BMW X3, saying the need for boot space prevented her from driving a sportier model – and her first purchase following the win was a pair of Jimmy Choos.

She said: ‘I nearly cried when I was paying for them in Selfridges because I couldn’t believe I was actually able to purchase this and I had the money to do it. It was a little bit overwhelming.

‘That collection’s a little bit bigger now, I don’t cry as much any more.’

Ruth still lives in the house she bought just before her win and says most of the new mothers she works with are unaware they are being looked after by a millionaire.

‘I don’t introduce myself and say “oh by the way I won a million quid 10 years ago”,’ she said.

‘The vast majority of people haven’t got a clue and that’s the way I like it. I’m treated just like any other midwife by patients and staff.’

To mark the 10-year anniversary of her win, Ruth has been supporting charity The Baby Room, which provides essentials for new families in Wigan.

She added: ‘We all know there’s a cost-of-living crisis that’s been going on for quite some time and babies don’t come cheap.

‘Not everybody is fortunate enough to be able to just go out and spend however much on all the equipment they’re going to need to make sure the baby’s got somewhere safe to sleep at night or that they’ve got sterilising equipment to make sure the bottles and teats they’re using, if they choose to bottle feed, are safe and clean.’

Alison Wakefield, who set up the baby bank in 2022 after having her youngest child, said: ‘Without our support we’d have babies that were sleeping on the floor, they wouldn’t have a safe space to sleep, we’d have them sleeping in drawers, we’d have babies using nappies more than once.

‘It’s an essential service that is definitely needed. Without us people would be going without and babies would be going without.’

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A lucky person could be in with a chance of winning £180million in Tuesday’s EuroMillions jackpot.

It means a fortunate person could be as rich as pop sensation Harry Styles who is worth £175million and Adele worth £170million, according to The Sunday Times.

If this was all laid out in £50 notes it would stretch all the way from Southampton to Newcastle.

If the notes were towered high they would be three times the size of the Great Pyramids of Giza.

But the knack to it all is to obviously get the right numbers and that is easier said than done.

Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said: ‘Wow, this is an enormous amount of money and one lucky UK ticket-holder could bag the lot and find themselves as rich as some of the most iconic names in music.

‘This massive amount could not only change a winners’ life, but would make a huge difference to their friends, family and community.

‘My team and I have the champagne on ice, ready and waiting to support our next big winner as they start their life-changing journey.

‘EuroMillions players should grab their tickets early to be in with a chance of winning this incredible prize.’

This jackpot is the third largest sum ever recorded in the UK, just £4million off the second biggest win recorded in the country.

This was won by Joe and Jess Thwaite who won £184million in May 2022.

It is also the 19th win in the UK that is over £100million.

Earlier this year, Richard and Debbie Nuttall won £61million in January.

Players can get their tickets for Tuesday’s jackpot via the National Lottery website, app, or retail stores before 7.30pm on the day and then the draw is held at 8.45pm.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Lucky lottery players have won big without them knowing – but time is running out to claim their millions.

If you’ve recently played EuroMillions, it’s worth taking a look at your tickets.

The UK has five more people who can call themselves instant millionaires, but the money still hasn’t been claimed.

National Lottery warned some of the winners have less than two months to claim and validate the tickets.

Winners in Bolton, Northumberland, Shropshire, North Lanarkshire and Camden have scooped £1,000,000 each and still need to come forward.

The winners in Bolton and Northumberland have only until May to claim.

The Shropshire winner needs to jump to action by July.

The lucky new winners near Glasgow in North Lanarkshire and the London Borough of Camden have until August 14 to claim.

For wins this big, players need to contact National Lottery directly.

If they don’t come forward, the money and interest will go to support National Lottery Projects instead.

They fund projects like food banks, workshops and other initiatives designed to help struggling communities.

One recent winner in Tamworth, Staffordshire, said he won’t give up his job as a pizza delivery driver despite bagging £500,000 – about 200 times what he earns in a year.

If you prefer to play scratchcards, you should know there’s been a change on how to collect big winnings.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.