Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184m (PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)EuroMillions couple have toasted to their record-breaking jackpot win with a “low-key” £16.95 steak and chips with family on a Gloucester trading estate, according to reports.
It was claimed Joe and Jess Thwaite left a “sizeable tip” for lucky staff at their closest Miller & Carter restaurant after becoming the UK’s biggest-ever National Lottery winners and securing the £184million prize.
They reportedly toasted the memory of Jess’s dad Tony Shearing, who died in 2015, but always told the couple: “Imagine if you won the lottery.”
A family source told The Sun: “It was a low-key celebration, the Thwaites weren’t popping champagne but they enjoyed the moment with their extended family.
“They were in such a celebratory mood — they left a sizeable tip.”
Their winnings, claimed on a Lucky Dip, could have bought them 10,870,000 plates of rump steak at the chain or a mere 126,897 gold leaf-plated Tomahawk steaks at Salt Bae’s Nusr-Et restaurant in Kensington.
The happy couple - who have been married for 11 years and have two children together - went public on Thursday.
Mrs Thwaite, 46, runs a hairdressing salon and Mr Thwaite, 49, is a communication sales engineer - both of them still going to work on the day they won the jackpot.
Mrs Thwaite said: “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.”
The communication sales engineer said he was in disbelief when he found out about the win through the National Lottery app.
He said: “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.”
But then he “started counting the digits”. He added: “Amazing, but also surreal.”
Mr Thwaite said the couple had been looking to buy a house for some time now.
“You go on Right Move 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 so I thought I don’t need to filter, I can actually just look at anything,” he added.
The win has made them richer than Sir Tom Jones or Harry Kane as well as securing them a place in the top 1,000 of Britain’s richest people.
Their winning numbers were 3, 25, 27, 28 and 29 - plus the Lucky Star numbers 4 and 9.
The record was previously held by an anonymous ticket-holder who banked £170 million in October 2019.
