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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

UK’s youngest Euromillions winner says she wishes she had never won £1m prize

The UK’s youngest Euromillions winner has said she wishes that she had never won the lottery.

Jane Park was just 17 when she scooped £1million on the Euromillions in 2013.

Ms Park, from Edinburgh, who is now 27, said she was left distraught after her win led to stalking, death threats and intrusive media attention.

Speaking on US TV show Dr Phil in an episode titled “The Curse of the Lottery”, she said she regrets going public after scooping the prize.

She said: “I splashed out a bit because I never knew the value of a million pounds, I’d never seen that kind of money.

“I never knew anyone with that kind of money, so I kind of splashed out on stuff that I’ve always wanted.”

Dr Phil then brought up the abuse she had suffered over the years.

He said: “You had stalkers, death threats, people hiding in the bushes and commenting on everything you were doing, which when you’re 17 that kind of gets under your skin.”

She replied: “I wish I’d never won it, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

Dr Phil asked Ms Park what she thought about the concept ‘the curse of the lottery’.

She replied: “It’s a very dark fairy tale that I think no one actually warns you about.”

It is not the first time Jane has spoken publicly about the downsides of winning the lottery.

Speaking to the Sunday People in 2017, Ms Park said: “I thought it would make it ten times better but it’s made it ten times worse. I wish I had no money most days. I say to myself, "My life would be so much easier if I hadn’t won."

“People look at me and think, "I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money." But they don’t realise the extent of my stress.”

She previously revealed that her family intervened to stop her from wasting her cash.

“It is very easy to spend the money and once you become aware that it is yours and how much you have got it becomes even easier,” she explained.

“You think, ‘Oh well I’ve got the money so I can spend it’. It just becomes easier to buy more stuff that you don’t necessarily need.

“My family said to me "You have spent a bit of it now, you need to think about investing it". So then I got some property and put some away in the bank.

“At some point I had to take their advice or it could have went a completely different way.”

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