Lottery £100m club: The top ten winners who have scooped over £100m on the EuroMillions
28 November 2024, 14:38 | Updated: 28 November 2024, 15:11
A UK ticket-holder has come forward to claim the £177 million jackpot from Tuesday's EuroMillions draw, which will make them the third biggest National Lottery winner of all time.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The claim will now go through a validation process and, if confirmed, the prize will be paid at an appointment with one of the National Lottery's winners' advisers.
The ticket-holder will then decide whether or not to go public and share their news with the world.
Lotto players were urged to double-check their EuroMillions tickets after an error in the winning numbers was published online by a slew of news organisations.
It was later revealed that an extra number had been mistakenly included in the National Lottery's winning lineup, a mistake that wasn't spotted until hours later.
The actual winning numbers are: 07, 11, 25, 31, and 40. The Lucky Stars are 09 and 12.
Many others have publicly celebrated their enormous wins, while plenty of others have opted not to.
The winning ticket holder will now join an exclusive list of winners who have taken home more than £100m on the EuroMillions, according to the MailOnline.
Here are the ten previous UK winners of the EuroMillions draw so far
1. Joe and Jess Thwaite, a couple from Gloucester banked a whopping £184million and were catapulted to the top of the National Lottery's rich list.
Mr Thwaite, 49, a communication sales engineer, and Mrs Thwaite, 44, who runs a hairdressing salon, have been married for 11 years.
The pair have two primary school-age children, and Mr Thwaite has two children at university from a previous marriage.
After going public with their win, the couple confirmed they are both going to quit their jobs.
Ms Thwaite said: "I'm going to take some time with that and what we're going to do."
Her husband Joe Thwaite said he has already handed his notice in. He said: "I'm leaving work."
2. In July 2011, Colin and Chris Weir claimed over £161 million.
The couple, who had been married for 30 years, professed they weren’t intimidated by their newfound wealth, as they were excited about the "so much fun" they planned to have with the money.
The pair, a retired TV cameraman and a former psychiatric nurse from Largs, Ayrshire, also announced that they would buy homes and cars for their two children: Carly, a photography student, and Jamie, who works in a call centre.
Shortly after their win, the family made a £1 million donation to the SNP.
Read more: Escaped former soldier Daniel Khalife found guilty of spying for Iran
3. In August 2012, Adrian and Gillian Bayford from Suffolk won more than £148 million in the EuroMillions lottery.
However, their marriage ended just 15 months later, with the couple citing the pressures of their newfound wealth as the reason for their split.
A spokesperson for Mrs. Bayford confirmed the separation, stating that the marriage had "broken down irretrievably."
This came shortly after Mrs. Bayford had to publicly deny rumors of an affair with the couple’s gardener, Chris Tovey.
Since his 2012 win, he has also been engaged to sausage factory worker Marta Jarosz, stable girl Samantha Burbridge and Frankie & Benny’s waitress Lisa Kemp.
Earlier this year, The Sun reported the former postman proposed to ambulance worker Tracey Biles, 45, at Christmas.
4. On New Year's Day 2019, Patrick and Frances Connolly from County Armagh won the entire £115 million EuroMillions jackpot.
5. An unnamed winner also claimed just over £113 million in October 2010 but chose to remain anonymous.
6. In March 2014, Neil Trotter, a former car mechanic from South London, won nearly £108 million.
He and his partner, Nicky Ottaway, reportedly moved out of their Croydon home "almost overnight" after the win.
At the time, Trotter humorously compared himself to the character Del Boy Trotter from Only Fools and Horses.
7. In November 2019, self-employed builder Steve Thomson and his wife Lenka, from Selsey, West Sussex, became the UK's biggest EuroMillions winners, claiming a £105 million prize.
Mr Thomson previously said he felt like he was "on the verge of having a heart attack" when he learnt he had won.
The father-of-three said he would not be giving up his job as a builder immediately and added: "Once I am over the shock I will need to keep doing something, I am not the type just to sit still."
8. In October 2011, Dave and Angela Dawes from Cambridgeshire won over £101 million on their third attempt at the EuroMillions draw.
Mr. Dawes later admitted he “didn’t sleep a wink” that night, as it was too late to contact Camelot after the couple checked their numbers.
In a later legal dispute, Mr. Dawes' son, Michael, an Afghanistan veteran, sued his father, claiming he was "ungenerous in spirit."
However, a judge ruled that the millionaire father was not obligated to continue bailing out his son, who had spent £1.6 million in two years, despite being advised by his stepmother to stop dining at the Ritz and opt for McDonald's instead.
9. In June 2015, another UK winner took home £93 million but chose to remain anonymous.
10. The Davies family from Wales won £61 million on the EuroMillions in 2016.
Stephanie Davies, then 23, was said to have “reluctantly” bought the ticket after her mother, Sonia, called from Florida urging her to do so.
Along with Keith Reynolds, Sonia Davies, Stephanie, Courtney Davies, and Steve Powell, the family celebrated what they called the "luckiest" win of their lives.
