A married couple have been revealed as the winners of Britain’s biggest EuroMillions lottery jackpot of £184 million.
Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, scooped a record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket on the draw on Tuesday, May 10.
Joe, 49, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, 44, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two primary-school aged children.
Joe said he was working on the day of the draw and by 4pm he thought he “better buy a ticket” because he was aware of the jackpot.
His wife Jess says the inspiration behind their win is her late father, who always played before he passed away.
She said: "My dad played the National Lottery all his life and constantly dreamed of winning.
"He'd always ask us what we'd do when we won, how we'd spend it, who we'd treat. It was a regular conversation and I feel like he was preparing us."
She added: “The win gives us time to dream, which we haven’t had before. 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.”
Joe said he regularly buys tickets, adding: “I normally buy them when it’s a good amount, so when there’s a lot of money I’ll put it on. I use the app, and have a quick check a couple of times a week and I’ll put it on.
“But generally my luck is pretty terrible, to be honest with you.”
His wife Jess said: “He tries to convince me to buy them thinking I’ll have more luck, but actually it’s him.”
Joe said that when he received an email telling him he won a prize he thought it was a Lucky Dip.
“Then I looked at the amount and I put the phone down. And I picked the phone up again, and I looked at the amount again.
“I first thought it was in thousands,” he said, adding that he thought it was “life-changing”.
But then he “started counting the digits”, adding: “Amazing, but also surreal.”
He said they have been trying to move house for quite a while and he went on RightMove.
“You go on RightMove and you set your limits on what you can afford, and in the past everything we’ve kind of wanted is far beyond what we can afford, and in the past everything we’ve kind of wanted is far beyond what we can afford so I thought I don’t need to filter, I can actually just look at anything,” he said.
The record was previously held by an anonymous ticket-holder who banked £170 million in October 2019.
The new record-breakers mark the second EuroMillions jackpot won in the UK this year, with the £109 million jackpot from the draw on February 4 claimed a few days later.
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