I won £3.6million National Lottery jackpot but small print rule means I won’t see a penny… life’s only gone downhill

There is no legal requirement to tell your spouse if you win the lottery during the course of your marriage.

However, during a divorce, all assets including lottery winnings must be declared so that they can be considered as part of the financial proceedings.

In a landmark case, the High Court held that, where one party to a marriage wins the lottery, the other will not share in those winnings unless they were acting together in the ticket’s purchase.

For example, this could be if they were effectively acting as a syndicate.

Or they could be considered to have "acted together" if the proceeds are invested in joint assets or property such as the matrimonial home.

However if the ticket is purchased unilaterally, without the knowledge of the other party, then the prize was described to be ‘akin to an external donation’ and therefore non-matrimonial.

One case involved a woman who had won £500,000 on the National Lottery.

She bought the winning ticket with her own money and without her husband’s knowledge.

The couple, who can’t be named for legal reasons, were living in a council house at the time and used the winnings to buy a £275,000 house.

A few years later, the couple’s marriage broke down and the husband moved out of the family home.

He claimed a share of the lottery winnings as part of the divorce settlement but the court ruled against him.

The judge said he was not entitled to an equal share because the wife’s lottery winnings were not “matrimonial property”.

However, the husband was entitled to a share of the proceeds from the family home because when the wife bought it with her winnings, she had converted it into “matrimonial property”.

He still wasn’t entitled to an equal share as he had only lived there for a short time.

He was therefore awarded a lump sum of only £85,000, even though the house is now worth an estimated £500,000.

Callie Rogers

Callie became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she won £1.9million in 2003.

The 16-year-old from Cumbria gave up her £3.60-an-hour checkout job and went on a spending spree, purchasing a £180,000 bungalow and a £76,000 home for her mum.

But she ultimately blew thousands on wild parties, three boob jobs and drugs, plus around £300,000 on designer clothes.

Eighteen years after her win, Callie was found to be claiming Universal Credit after blowing her fortune.

Michael Carrol

The self-styled ‘King of Chavs’ was 19 when he scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002.

The part-time binman, who was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket, immediately bought a £340,000 six-bedroom home in Norfolk.

He spent a further £400,000 on lavish home upgrades and dropped £49,000 on a BMW to park in his drive. He most notably invested £1million in Rangers FC shares.

Michael’s wife, Sandra, left him over his incessant party boy lifestyle and took £1.4million from the divorce settlement. By 2010, he had declared bankruptcy.

Roger Griffiths

Griffiths and his wife Lara netted £1.8million on the National Lottery in 2005.

Quitting their day jobs, the couple enjoyed expensive holidays and luxury motors and also splashed £800,000 on a barn conversion in Wetherby, West Yorks.

After wannabe rock star Roger spent £25,000 making a music record, the couple divested into safer assets but the global financial crisis hit and rendered them worthless.

In 2010, their uninsured home tragically went up in flames - and all their funds dried up three years later.

Lee Ryan

Ex-jailbird Ryan scooped the £6.5million jackpot just 17 weeks after the lottery was launched in 1994.

It later emerged he was accused of handling stolen cars and was imprisoned for 18 months after his huge payout.

Once released he spent a decade enjoying his riches, even buying a helicopter and a £2million mansion but ultimately ended up penniless.

Lee was dealt his final blow when he took an ill-fated trip to Kyrgyzstan and invested the last of his winnings in property, which failed due to an economic crisis.

Gillian and Adrian Bayford

The loving couple’s lives changed overnight in 2012 when they scooped a staggering £148million.

But just 15 months after the win, their eight-year marriage ended with both parties partly blaming stress on their mind-boggling win.

Adrian shacked up with ex-horse groomer Samantha Burbidge, who ended up bolting with his money, 30 horses, a horse box, and a car he gifted her.

Gillian was convicted of attacking her ex-lover Gavin Innes. She then moved on and started dating fraudster Brian Deans, who ended up in jail, and last made the headlines in 2021 for claiming nearly £40,000 in furlough cash.

Margaret Loughrey

Margaret scooped £27million in 2013 and became Northern Ireland's biggest winner at the time.

However, the 48-year-old later admitted the huge fortune didn't bring her any happiness.

She told local media: "Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life."

Tragically, in September last year, Margaret, by now in her 50s, was found dead in her home.

Martyn and Kay Tott

The Totts got the shock of their lives when they realised they'd won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.

By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn't find the ticket.

Computer records in their local Londis proved Kay really had purchased the ticket.

But a little-known rule stipulating that lost tickets must be reported within 30 days meant they would never receive the cash – eventually putting too much strain on their marriage and causing it to break down.