A LUCKY lotto player scooped £210million in the EuroMillions superjackpot draw last night – but tragic tales of past winners should serve as a warning.
The ticket holder from France has now become richer than Adele – who has a reported net worth of around £180million – after winning the eye-watering prize.
John McGuinness lived on a council estate before winning a £10million jackpotAlamy
Keith Gough scooped £9 million in 2005PA:Press Association
Margaret Loughrey scooped £27m in 2013Pacemaker
While most lottery winners choose to be anonymous, some welcomed the spotlight.
And while you might think they’re the luckiest people alive, many have gone on to have some serious misfortune.
There’s plenty of reports of financial feuds and couples broken up by the “lottery curse”.
John McGuinness
John McGuinness was working as a hospital porter and living on a council estate when he won £10million in 1997.
He lived with his parents in a council house at the time and earned £150 a week.
After the win, he spent more than £3million on close family members, swapped his Vauxhall Astra for a £140,000 Ferrari Modena Spyder and bought a £500,000 seafront apartment in Majorca.
At one stage he had six cars on his driveway, including a Bentley, Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW.
And he bought a £1.3million mansion in Bothwell, South Lanarkshire, which he moved into with his wife Sandra and family.
He moved to another mansion just 20ft away in 2004 so he could fit a snooker table in.
But John lost all his winnings after a devastating turn of events.
The die-hard Livingston FC fan’s fortunes were left in tatters when he used his sudden wealth as a guarantee against the club’s loans.
It meant that he was liable for all of the football club’s debts.
He had put £4million into Livingston before it went into administration.
And he lost millions in a venture to buy Livingston with former Celtic director Dominic Keane.
Keane was accused in court of tricking him into signing an extension to a £2million loan but was found not guilty.
AlamyJohn lost all his winnings through a disastrous investment in his beloved Livingston FC[/caption]
AlamyHe splashed out on six cars including a £140,000 Ferrari[/caption]
John said at the time: “Keane broke down in the witness box and said he’d lost his house. But I’m the only one who has lost everything.
“I had the Ferraris, the designer wardrobe and the luxury holidays. I had everything I had ever dreamed about and more.
“Now I’m worried about how to pay for the shopping.”
John is now understood to live as a virtual recluse who struggles to pay bills.
Keith Gough
Keith Gough said his £9million prize ruined his life and he drank himself to death.
The former baker died in 2010 aged just 58 after battling alcoholism and going through a divorce.
Keith, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, gave up his job and splashed out on a top-of-the-range BMW, a group of racehorses and an executive box to watch his beloved Aston Villa after scooping the jackpot in 2005.
However, just two years later, he and his wife of 27 years Louise separated after he started drinking heavily out of “boredom”.
This led to a stint in the Priory, a rehab facility in Birmingham, and divorce.
Keith said in a 2009 interview that the win had “ruined” his life.
He recalled: “Without routine in my life I started to spend, spend, spend. In the end I was just bored.
However, he said the win ‘ruined his life’ as he split with his wife and turned to drinkNewsteam
He died of a suspected heart attack in 2010 at the age of 58Newsteam
“Before the win all I would drink was some wine with a meal. I used to be popular but I’ve driven away all my friends. I don’t trust anyone any more.
“When I see someone going in to a newsagent, I advise them not to buy a lottery ticket.”
Following the collapse of his marriage, he moved to a £1 million rented home in Cheshire, complete with a chauffeur and gardener, but blew the cash on gambling.
He also lost £700,000 to conman James Prince, who he had met in rehab and who persuaded him to invest in fraudulent business schemes.
Prince admitted money laundering and fraud in 2009 and was jailed for three years and four months.
Keith passed away at the Princess Royal hospital in Telford the following year from a suspected heart attack.
John Homer, who owned the newsagents where the tragic winner bought his unlucky ticket, told The Guardian: “It was a Wednesday and a rollover from the previous Saturday. It all went downhill from there. He and his wife split.
“He did have a drink problem and it got progressively worse.
“It’s very sad because it should have made him a very happy man, but he didn’t get the best out of it.
“You never expected any sorrow or problems, but he must have had some, although he never spoke about them to me.”
Margaret Loughrey
EuroMillions winner Margaret Loughrey said the money destroyed her life.
She built a mansion and bought a fleet of luxury cars before tragically dying.
She scooped the staggering £27m jackpot in 2013, and gave loved ones £1m each.
She picked up the ticket on a whim after applying for a charity job – matching five numbers and two lucky stars to bag a total £26,863,588.
The prize was the largest ever jackpot won in Northern Ireland at the time.
Despite her huge win, Margaret continued living in a bungalow in her hometown of Strabane, in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and vowed to “spread” the cash around.
But she did spend some of the sum on herself, splashing out on a string of properties – including a pub, houses, and a mill.
PacemakerShe built a dream home with a six-bay glass-fronted showroom for a fleet of luxury cars despite not being able to drive[/caption]
PacemakerMargaret built her dream home and six-bay glass-fronted showroom for a fleet of luxury cars despite not being able to drive[/caption]
But one of her biggest expenditures was building a dream home with a six-bay glass-fronted showroom for a fleet of luxury cars despite not being able to drive.
Among the motors was a £70,000 Jaguar XJ50, a vintage motorbike with sidecar, a vintage VW Campervan, a classic VW Beetle and a vintage Land Rover jeep.
But just four months after her win Margaret was sectioned after being told she was “a danger to herself and others”.
She left hospital but her plight sadly continued as her life became blighted by mental health problems.
In 2015, she was ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service after she assaulted a taxi driver by smashing his glasses and SatNav.
Three years later, she had to pay £30,000 to a former employee for bullying and firing him on a “vindictive whim”.
Her mental health deteriorating, her weight at one stage plunged to five-and-a-half stone.
Margaret later said the win had “sent her to hell and back” even though she was living on benefits and unemployed at the time.
She also claimed she was left with just £5million in 2019 and said she had been targeted by thieves.
The millionaire added: “Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life.
“I have had six years of this. I don’t believe in religion, but if there is a hell, I have been in it. It has been that bad.”
Tragically, Margaret had just finished her dream home when she was found dead in September 2021.
She never got the chance to live in it.
Police confirmed they were called to Margaret’s bungalow following reports of a “sudden death”.
They added: “A post-mortem is due to take place but at this stage, the death is not being treated as suspicious.”
Following her death, Margaret’s brother Paul Loughrey said she was potentially vulnerable to people taking advantage of her.
Joshua Winslet
FacebookJosh Winslet spent the last £9 in his bank account to buy the winning lottery ticket[/caption]
Courts SAHe was just 22 years old when he won the huge cash prize in 2017[/caption]
Joshua Winslet was found dead in his home after his £11million prize caused his life to spiral out of control.
The Australian plumber was just 22 years old when he landed the fortune in 2017, but he blew it all in just three years after he was crippled by addiction.
His parents tried to help him manage the eyewatering sum of cash by stashing it in a trust fund, but tragically, that wasn’t enough to save him.
In 2022, he died at home from health complications caused by excessive drug use.
His death was not reported by New Zealand or Australian press at the time.
His tragic end came shortly after he was arrested and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for supplying drugs and possessing a firearm.
A friend of Josh spoke of his death and told the MailOnline: “It was such a shock and absolutely devastating, but sadly a lot of us were so worried this is what it was coming to.”
Looking back at his lottery win, she said: “When I found out he won through the grapevine, I thought, ‘Oh, wow, that’s extraordinary.’
“I was so happy for him. Out of everyone from our school, and after all the bullying he copped, he deserved it more than anyone,” she added.
Another said how he called her and her boyfriend to break the news of his Powerball winnings.
Courts SAA horde of illegal substances, including 28.3 grams of MDMA and 2.27g of cocaine, was also seized[/caption]
Courts SAA Mauser handgun and ammunition was hidden in his bathroom[/caption]
Courts SAHis house was littered with bongs, empty bottles of booze and MDMA[/caption]
She said that she initially thought he was joking, but after he sent her a screenshot of his Lotto app, she realised he was being serious.
But how did the hardworking tradie’s life take such a drastic turn?
Josh was living on New Zealand’s South Island at the time and had suffered severe bullying over his ‘physical deformities’ that were caused by Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome.
Duane syndrome stops the eye muscles from developing properly, which affects eye movement.
Goldenhar syndrome causes abnormalities in the formation of the bones in the face and head.
It can also cause spinal issues and benign cysts to form on the eye, as well as impacting internal organs.
He’d had a string of surgeries as a child to treat the syndromes.
Josh was also born with a singular horseshoe-shaped kidney and an irregular heartbeat, stopping him from playing contact sports.
The torment inflicted on him by his peers was so severe that when he was in Year 10 he left school and studied at Adelaide University Senior College in South Australia.
He studied for around six months before leaving to do a plumbing apprenticeship.
When he was 20, he moved to New Zealand’s South Island to look for work.
Around this time, he used the last £9 ($19) in his bank account to buy a last-minute ticket for the Powerball draw and won £11million ($22milion).
But the cash began to burn a hole in his pocket, and he soon started splashing it on a-class drugs.
In 2020, cops raided the “party house” and found an unlicensed firearm Mauser handgun and ammunition hidden in his bathroom.
A horde of illegal substances, including 28.3 grams of MDMA and 2.27g of cocaine, was also seized.
Investigators received a tip-off the lottery winner was allegedly manufacturing drugs at the property.
Josh, who was 27 at the time, pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence.
He was sentenced to three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
The sentence was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, with supervision.
Shocking images released by South Australia’s District Court showed the inside of his trashed New Port mansion at the time.
Empty bottles of booze, bongs, bags of MDMA, cocaine and marijuana appeared to be littered around the bachelor pad.
Nitrous oxide canisters, cigarettes and half-drunk glasses of wine were also seen strewn across a marble table.
Another snap showed a large bowl filled with a mystery white powder inside his fridge, alongside a pack of Red Bull cans and beer boxes.
Chaotic jumbles of rubbish and clothes were left dumped on the floor in an “appalling” state.
Judge Heath Barklay said that Josh had “lost motivation” for life and had adopted a “hedonistic lifestyle”.
He said: “Because of the money that you had won, there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy yourself.
“You had lots of money so you could afford to buy large amounts of drugs, which you would use yourself and supply to your so-called friends from time to time.”
You’re Not Alone
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
That is why The Sun launched the You’re Not Alone campaign.
The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all do our bit to help save lives.
Let’s all vow to ask for help when we need it, and listen out for others… You’re Not Alone.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
CALM, www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
Heads Together,www.headstogether.org.uk
HUMEN www.wearehumen.org
Mind, www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393
Papyrus, www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
Samaritans,www.samaritans.org, 116 123
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