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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Tim Hanlon & Ellie Kendall

The UK's biggest ever lottery winners as player scoops £184m jackpot

One lucky Brit has just earned the title of the UK's biggest-ever lottery winner after bagging themselves a giant EuroMillions jackpot of £184 million.

If you're wondering where on earth you'd begin to spend such a significant wad of cash, why not take a look at how other EuroMillions chosen to spend theirs?

So far, there have been 15 players who have won a jackpot amount of more than £100 million - that's in the entire history of the National Lottery - and, while many decide to remain anonymous, some have told The Mirror how they have splurged their winnings on high-value products, given away large amounts through donations and even suffered divorce heartache.

Read more: How to check if you've won the EuroMillions as UK ticket holder scoops £184m jackpot

The latest winner, who is still unknown, has won the new highest figure - a total of £184,262,899.10 with the numbers 3, 25, 27, 28 and 29 (plus the Lucky Star numbers 4 and 9) in Tuesday's draw.

To put that into perspective, the lucky winner is now worth more than footballers Harry Kane (£33 million) and Paul Pogba (£64 million) combined.

They could afford to buy four Caribbean islands and still have a few million to spare - they could even afford not one but 11 six-bedroom luxury properties in London's Hyde Park.

Now the top of the lottery rich list, they've also beaten the former richest winner (who decided to remain anonymous) who won £170,221,000 in October 2019, after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw.

Next on the list are Colin and Chris Weir, who won £161,653,000 in 2011.

The couple, from Largs, North Ayrshire, became the biggest UK winners at the time.

Colin used £2.5 million of his winnings to invest in his beloved Partick Thistle football club, leading to one of the stands at the stadium to be named after him.

He later acquired a 55% shareholding in the club, which was to be passed on to the local community upon his death - Colin died in December 2019 at the age of 71.

Finally, the couple also set up the Weir Charitable Trust in 2013, donating £1 million to the Scottish Independence referendum in 2014. They divorced in the same year as Colin's death.

Adrian and Gillian Bayford celebrate winning the jackpot of over 148 million GBP in the EuroMillions lottery on August 14, 2012 in Hatfield Heath, England (Oli Scarff)

Adrian and Gillian Bayford won €190 million (£148,656,000) in a EuroMillions draw in August 2012.

The couple bought a Grade II-listed estate in Cambridgeshire, which boasted a cinema and billiards room, but this was sold in 2021 - some years after the pair divorced, according to reports from The Mirror.

Next come three anonymous winners, who decided that going public just wasn't for them.

The first won a Superdraw rollover jackpot in June 2019, worth £123,458,008.

The next bagged themselves a £122,550,350 prize after nine rollovers in April 2021.

And another won £121,328,187 in a Superdraw jackpot rollover in April 2018.

Frances Connolly, 52, and Patrick Connolly, 54, from Moira in Northern Ireland, who scooped a £115 million EuroMillions jackpot in the New Year's Day lottery draw in 2019 (Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

Frances and Patrick Connolly are next in the list, winning £114,969,775.

Frances, a former social worker and teacher, set up two charitable foundations after the win on New Year's Day 2019 and she estimated that she has already given away £60 million to charitable causes, as well as friends and family.

She called it an 'addiction', saying: "It gives you a buzz and it's addictive. I'm addicted to it now."

Another anonymous winner took home £113,019,926 in October 2010, while the final winner in this list bagged themselves £111,540,000 in the Superdraw in June last year and also decided not to go public.

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