The UK’s biggest-ever lottery winner could be crowned on Tuesday with a £184 million EuroMillions jackpot up for grabs.
Only 14 players have ever won a jackpot of more than £100million in the history of the National Lottery.
Here are the 10 biggest UK lottery winners – all from EuroMillions draws – and what some of them did with their fortunes.
Colin and Chris Weir (Andrew Milligan/PA)
– Anonymous, £170,221,000
The biggest winner of the National Lottery to date scooped £170 million in October 2019, after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw.
– Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colin and Chris Weir from Largs, North Ayrshire, bagged their historic winnings in July 2011, making them the biggest UK winners at the time.
Colin used £2.5 million of his fortune to invest in his beloved Partick Thistle football club, which led to one of the stands at the stadium to be named after him.
He later acquired 55% shareholding in the club, which was to be passed into the hands of the local community upon his death. He died 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 same year as Colin’s death.
Gillian and Adrian Bayford (Sean Dempsey/PA)
– Adrian and Gillian Bayford, £148,656,000
Adrian and Gillian won 190 million euro in a EuroMillions draw in August 2012, which came to just over £148 million. 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, as reported by The Mirror.
– Anonymous, £123,458,008
The fourth biggest National Lottery winner won a Superdraw rollover jackpot in June 2019, and decided not to go public with their success.
– Anonymous, £122,550,350
After nine rollovers, one lucky anonymous ticket-holder bagged more than £122 million in April 2021.
Frances and Patrick Connolly (Liam McBurney/PA)
– 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.
– Frances and Patrick Connolly, £114,969,775
Former social worker and teacher Frances set up two charitable foundations after she and her husband won almost £115 million on New Year’s Day 2019. She estimates that she has already given away £60 million to charitable causes, as well as friends and family.
She considers helping others to be an addiction. “It gives you a buzz and it’s addictive. I’m addicted to it now,” she said.
– Anonymous, £113,019,926
Although they have dropped several places since their win, this ticket-holder jumped to the top of the National Lottery rich list when they won their fortune in October 2010.
– Anonymous, £111,540,000
The only winning ticket for this Superdraw jackpot in June 2021 was sold in the UK.
– Anonymous, £109,915,000
The most recent entrant into the National Lottery’s top 10 winners’ list won the EuroMillions jackpot in February this year, in the first Superdraw of 2022.
