
The UK's 10 biggest EuroMillions wins
Here are the 10 biggest UK lottery wins to date – all from EuroMillions draws – and what some of the winners did with their fortunes.
– Anonymous, £195,707,000
A UK ticket-holder scooped a EuroMillions jackpot of £195 million on July 19 2022.
– Joe and Jess Thwaite, £184,262,899.10
Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, scooped a then record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10 2022.
Joe and Jess Thwaite (Andrew Matthews/PA)
At the time, Joe was a communications sales engineer, and Jess ran a hairdressing salon with her sister.
– Anonymous, £177,033,699.20
A UK ticket-holder became the third biggest National Lottery winner after receiving a £177 million jackpot.
The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, came forward to claim the EuroMillions jackpot after the draw on November 26 2024.
They became immediately wealthier than popstar Dua Lipa, who is worth an estimated £104 million, and Michael Buble, worth around £63 million.
– Anonymous, £171,815,297.80
A UK ticket-holder scooped £171,815,297.80 in the September 23 2022 draw – at the time the country's third biggest National Lottery win.
– Anonymous, £170,221,000
The fifth biggest winner of the National Lottery to date scooped £170 million in 2019 after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw on October 8.
– Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colin and Chris Weir (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs, North Ayrshire, bagged their historic winnings on July 12 2011, making them the biggest UK winners at the time.
Colin invested £2.5 million in his beloved Partick Thistle FC, which led to one of the stands at the stadium being named after him.
He later acquired a 55% shareholding in the club, which was passed into the hands of the local community upon his death in December 2019, aged 71.
The couple also set up the Weir Charitable Trust in 2013 and donated £1 million to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. They divorced in the year of Colin's death.
– Adrian and Gillian Bayford, £148,656,000
Adrian and Gillian, from Haverhill, Suffolk, won 190 million euros in a EuroMillions draw on August 10 2012, which came to just over £148 million.
Adrian Bayford and wife Gillian (Sean Dempsey/PA)
The couple bought a Grade II-listed estate in Cambridgeshire, complete with cinema and billiards room, but it was sold in 2021, some years after the pair divorced.
– Anonymous, £123,458,008
The eighth biggest National Lottery winner won a Superdraw rollover jackpot on June 11 2019, and decided not to go public with their success.
– Anonymous, £122,550,350
After nine rollovers, one lucky ticket-holder bagged more than £122 million in April 2021.
Anonymous, £121,328,187
Another of the UK's top 10 lottery winners found their fortune through a Superdraw jackpot rollover, this time in April 2018.
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Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
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At best, they would pocket a few small wins and use the money to fund celebratory dinners. But one day, everything changed. They had hit the jackpot of more than €50million (£41m), and his share was close to €8million (£6.7m). For a man who had spent his entire life working hard with little to show for it, the win was overwhelming. He was no longer the tiler from Charneca da Caparica, a small parish in Portugal. He was a millionaire, suddenly thrust into a world of luxury and excess. 'I couldn't believe it,' Luís said in an interview with Noticias Magazine. 'I didn't sleep for 15 days. I just couldn't. It was anxiety. Something like this changes your life completely.' In the days following the win, Luís was swept up in the excitement. It wasn't long before his life began to spiral into a whirlwind of indulgence. What started as a moment of joy quickly turned into a life of extravagance, as Luís tried to adjust to his new reality. He bought a new house in Charneca da Caparica, just a few kilometres from his old one. He traveled constantly, indulging in the lifestyle of the rich and famous, and spent lavishly on his friends and family. 'I still worked for another two months, but then I quit. I bought houses for my nephews, gave money to my siblings, and traveled everywhere. Wherever Benfica went, I went too,' Luís said, reminiscing about the endless trips and the pleasures of his newfound wealth. It was a life of excess, but it wasn't all happiness. Soon after, Luís began to feel the darker side of his sudden fortune. People he had never met before began to approach him, claiming they knew him or had some connection to him. 'I had people knocking at my door who I had never seen before. They would tell me they knew me, and my house was always full of people,' Luís said. He bought a new house, but it didn't bring the peace he had hoped for. Looking back, he regrets not moving further away from his old life. He admits: 'Today I wouldn't buy a house so close. I should have moved further away. It was too much. It became overwhelming.' His life was filled with noise, with people knocking on his door, calling him for favours and asking for money. He had never experienced anything like it before. While the riches gave him the freedom to live a life of luxury, they also brought complications. His marriage ended in divorce, and his financial situation began to slip. The lavish lifestyle that had once seemed so exciting began to fade away, and Luís found himself struggling to hold onto what little he had left. The toll of his decisions became clear. As Luís's fortune dwindled, he turned to people he trusted to help manage his finances. One of those people was his lawyer, Sónia Valente. He reportedly met her through a friend, and they "got along well,' he explained, so he "gave her full control over my financial affairs. I thought she would take care of everything.' For years, Sónia handled all of Luís's legal and financial matters. He signed documents without reading them and handed over large sums of cash whenever she requested it. He alleges she would tell him he owed taxes or fines, and he would give her whatever she asked for. He told newspaper Correio da Manha: 'Never less than €50,000, all in cash. I had never paid taxes in my life. I didn't know how things worked. I trusted her." But in 2018, after nearly a decade of trusting Sónia blindly, Luís began to suspect something was wrong. A friend urged him to check his tax records, and what he discovered shocked him. The amounts he owed were far lower than what Sónia had claimed. Furious and feeling betrayed, Luís cut ties with Sónia and filed a complaint against her, accusing her of fraud and embezzlement. He claimed she had taken over €500,000 from him under false pretenses. Sónia Valente, however, denies all accusations. In a statement to the same newspaper, she claimed Luís was simply trying to avoid paying his debts and was using her as a scapegoat. 'I repudiate all of his accusations,' she said. 'They are false and defamatory. Luís Lopes is responsible for his own financial ruin.' She claims that Luís was difficult to work with, refusing to pay his bills and causing problems with the legal services she provided. According to Sónia, Luís's financial difficulties were a result of his own poor choices, a lifestyle filled with 'drugs, women, and a life of idleness and luxury as if money would never run out'. 'Luís has never been fond of paying his bills,' she claimed. Not only did Sónia reject Luís's claims, but she also sued him for unpaid legal fees. The court ruled in her favour, and as a result, Luís's assets were seized. His house in Charneca de Caparica was partially taken by the court, his bank accounts were frozen, and he was left scrambling to fight back. 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