UK couple scoops €190m lottery win
Britain’s second biggest lottery winners were unveiled by UK operator Camelot today.
Husband and wife Adrian Bayford (41) and Gillian (40) from Haverhill, Suffolk, scooped £148.6 million (€190 million) in Friday’s EuroMillions draw.
The lucky couple, who have a daughter aged six and a four-year-old son, scooped the staggering sum with the winning numbers 50, 21, 17, 48 and 11, and the Lucky Star numbers 09 and 10.
The jackpot - £148,656,000 - is just behind the £161 million landed by Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, in July last year.
They were unveiled as the winners at Down Hall Country House Hotel, near Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, today.
Adrian, who co-owns a music shop in Haverhill, and Gillian, a children’s ward healthcare assistant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, struggled to fully appreciate the moment they realised they had won the jackpot as their young son had just woken-up and was crying.
Adrian said: “I had been watching the film The Bank Job on TV while Gillian was out with friends. When she got back we decided to turn over and catch-up on the news."
“Scrolling along the bottom of the screen was the news that one person had won EuroMillions, but Gillian confessed that she hadn’t had time to get a ticket."
“As a joke, I also said neither had I when in fact I had five lines upstairs waiting to be checked. By now both of our children had woken up so while Gillian was trying to settle them back to sleep, I went to check the numbers on my phone.
“Gradually the numbers seemed to match up with those on my ticket, and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing! I rushed back and turned on the main light at which point Gillian went ballistic!"
“The kids really were awake by now. I was trying to tell her that we had won the lottery and she was telling me to keep the noise down!”
The couple called family members to share the good news, having given up on getting the children back to bed.
Gillian said: “Everyone was very surprised to hear from us so late at night and thought we were joking at first. It took us a while to make them believe us!
“The children sensed our ecstatic mood and took full advantage of it. They finally settled back to sleep in our bed at around 2am. We decided we weren’t going to be needing our bed that night anyway!”
The couple, who have been married for eight years, spent the rest of the night on the internet deciding how to spend the huge jackpot, the result of 14 rollovers.
