I won £30m on the lottery – it destroyed my family & my best pal scammed me & got cars & a Californian pad with my cash

A LOTTERY winner who bagged £30million has opened up about how it has destroyed his family and some friendships.

Randy Rush hit the jackpot in Canada back in 2015 and admitted he had “always had a gut feeling” he would come into a large sum of money one day.

He’d bought the winning Lottery ticket when he’d popped to the local corner shop to get some cat food, and it had been the last ticket in the stack.

From the moment he found out he’d won, he felt like he was “taking off in a spaceship”.

The money had landed in full into his account, but said he didn’t get any advice as to how to handle his new fortune.

Speaking to he said: “I hardly slept for two years because of the adrenaline — and all the phone calls.”

He quit his job as a salesman for a large international company and invested in real estate, hedge funds and charity projects. 

He also left his hometown of Alberta straight away as he had people knocking on his door and demanding money from him, including his neighbour.

Randy admitted: “Having this kind of money shows what people are really made of. I lost a 43-year friendship over it.

“My mother demanded half of my winnings and wouldn't talk to me ever again because I didn't give it to her. It was a little traumatic at the time, but now I'm over it.”

However, he claims his worst experience came with his best friend, who he had known since school.

The pal’s son pitched a tech business investment opportunity to him, which he said would be the next Facebook.

Randy leaped at the chance to help a friend and diversify his portfolio of assets.

But the investment turned out to be a scam.

He added: “It turned out the company, in which I had invested $3.4 million ($4.6 million Canadian), was surrounded by lies, and the money I put in was gone — taken by my best friend and his wife, who had bought luxury cars and an ocean-side property in California.”

Randy described the “Judas experience” as "gutting" as he had cared about his friend deeply.

A court battle ensued, and he ended up getting his money back.

The lottery winner said bagging the jackpot has “changed his life for the better” but it has shown the “true colours” of those around him.

Randy added that he still buys lottery tickets today in the hopes of bagging a second large sum.