OUTTA LUCK
I won £22m lottery jackpot & CUT OFF my family – I just don’t trust them not to take advantage of me
His co-winner also suffered a sad twist of fate
A PUNTER who won a £22million jackpot has no interest in sharing his riches with family members.
Hastings man Mark Gardiner claimed the mammoth win back in 1995 alongside former best friend Paul Maddison.
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But Mark is estranged from his three sisters and mothers - both biological and the one who adopted him - so fed funds from the win to his mates instead.
Mark was married four times, splitting with his fourth and final wife - Brenda - in 2004.
He then vowed to stay single forever, only keeping contact with cousin June and uncle Jim.
He previously told of how winning enormous piles of cash made him lose trust in those close to him.
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Mark said: "I spent £500,000 buying five friends houses when I won.
"Do you think they are still my friends? Like hell.
"Not one speaks to me. Having so much money has made me suspicious of people's intentions.
"It's horrible, but when someone's being nice then it does cross my mind what they are up to.”
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Mark also fell out with co-winner Paul following the bumper prize.
As of July last year, they hadn't seen each other since Paul failed to show for Mark's fourth wedding.
I won £1million National Lottery jackpot but brushed it off as ‘just a bit of pocket change’ after making silly mistake
Paul was reported to have lived in a six-bedroom mansion in Scotland.
But any hopes of the pair rekindling their old bond were dashed when Paul died in November.
Mark continues to work for the double-glazing window businesses he managed before the life-changing lotto triumph, saying it has helped him retain some normality.
He said: "What can be better than someone saying, 'Thanks. You've done a lovely job on my windows.'
“Now, if my money could buy comments like that I'd be a poor man because I'd buy them all the time."
How lottery winners have gone on to lose it all
Homelessness, crime, sex, drugs and death - lotto winners don't always turn their lives around for the best. These are some of their stories.
Cocaine car crash
Callie Rogers was just 16 when she won £1.9m.
But the girl from Cumbria would go on to blow her coin on boob jobs, parties and drugs.
She told Closer Magazine:
“It was too much money for someone so young.
“Even if you say your life won’t change, it does and often not for the better.”
She was involved in a car crash while on cocaine in 2020.
Drugs, sex and gold
Part-time binman Michael Carroll - or the "King of Chavs" - was just 19 when he claimed a win of nearly £10million.
He married wife Sarah a year later, but she left him due to partying and what Michael called "Roman-style orgies" at his mansion.
He said: “I only started to think about three things – drugs, sex and gold."
By 2019 he was found chopping wood and delivering coal for £10 an hour.
'I took the piss out of God'
Lee Ryan scooped £6.5million in 1994 but soon found himself in the clink for handling stolen cars.
When he was freed, he spent a decade spending up on the lavish life.
He ended up homeless.
He said: “The money was cursed because I took the p**s out of God when I asked him to make me a multimillionaire.
"My cellmate warned me to be careful what I wished for."
A dark turn
Margaret Loughrey became Northern Ireland's biggest winner of all time when she claimed £27m in 2013.
But she said the riches brought her nothing but misery.
She was tragically found dead in her home in September 2021.
He did, however, splash out on two football clubs, two boats, two houses in Barbados, an Aston Martin and a Harley Davidson.
Mark has previously spoken out about the dark side of huge lottery wins and the fame that his brought him.
In 2005, he said: "There are days when I curse my win and wish I'd never got involved.
“But I guess if I woke up one day and saw my rusty old van and bank loan and realised I'd dreamt all this up that would be pretty frightening, too.
"Sometimes I think it would have been better to have won a much smaller amount.
"I love going somewhere where no one knows me and I can be a normal person."
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But Mark is trying his luck at striking lightning twice, continuing to play the lotto to this day.
He said to win the jackpot twice would be “amazing” and “you need money for a rainy day”.
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