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A LOTTO CASH
My husband and I won a £114million lottery jackpot – you’ll never guess the first thing we bought with our winnings
Frances Connolly simply does not believe what people say about a lottery win making you miserable
ASK Frances Connolly how much she won on the lottery, and she replies, “£114million pounds and a few pennies”.
Actually, she confesses, it was “a lot of pennies” — £969,775-worth, to be precise.
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She scooped almost £115million in January 2019 and is one of the happiest people you will ever meet.
She simply does not believe what people say about a lottery win making you miserable.
In an interview with The Sun to mark the 30th anniversary of the UK’s National Lottery, Frances says: “If you were a d**khead before you had money, you’re going to be a d**khead afterwards.
“Money is an inanimate object and has no power over you at all.
READ MORE ON LOTTERY WINNERS
“It changes your life, not your personality.”
Since former teacher Frances and her businessman husband Paddy scooped their huge EuroMillions jackpot almost six years ago, they have given away more than £60million to family and friends.
As well as family and friends, thousands more people have benefited through the charities they have set up. The couple were living in Moira, Northern Ireland, when they hit the jackpot and never planned to go public.
We made a phone call to our three girls and said, ‘You know that couple who won the lottery last night? That was us’.
Frances
But Frances reveals for the first time how they came to tell the world they had clinched what, at the time, was then the fourth biggest UK lottery prize ever claimed.
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Looking tanned following her fourth holiday of the year — a week in Barbados — she says: “We could easily have kept it quiet, and our first instinct to going public was ‘definitely not’.”
‘Make a difference’
The couple were sitting at the table with lottery winners’ adviser Andy Carter when they asked to speak to their grown-up children — twins Fiona and Natalie, and their other daughter Katrina — so they could break the news of their big win.
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Frances, 58, says: “We made a phone call to our three girls and said, ‘You know that couple who won the lottery last night? That was us’.
“Then I phoned my dad, and Paddy went off to the other room and phoned his family. Then I called my brothers and sisters.
“By the time I’d phoned my last sister, my dad had phoned my aunt. She told her husband, who put it on Facebook.
“There was absolutely no point then not going public.”
So what was her first purchase after confirming she was worth £115million?
Frances says: “Do you really want to know? A pair of knickers.”
Recalling how she found herself holed up in a hotel with no fresh underwear as they prepared to announce their win to the world, Frances adds: “We left our home with nothing, to keep us safe in case anybody found out about it and came to the house. And they did — within minutes.
“When we arrived at a hotel in England on Friday night, ahead of the press conference, I had to phone our Fiona and say, ‘Will you nip down to Marks & Spencer?’.
“She got a pack of three pairs for 12 quid.” But Frances adds: “The first luxury thing I bought was for my dad — a gold pocket watch.
“Mind you, I put a letter F on it and told him when he died, I’d get it back.”
Most lottery winners will never forget the numbers they played to scoop the jackpot.
But Frances, who won on a lucky dip, reveals: “We never actually bought a physical ticket. We did it online.
“I think Paddy took a picture of the screen on the night when the computer tells you you’ve won, and your numbers come up like a ticket. As long as Andy gave me the money, I didn’t care what the numbers were. Is that a terribly mercenary thing to say?”
While they were waiting for adviser Andy to travel to Northern Ireland from his base in South Wales, Frances and Paddy began planning to use the cash to help people.
Paddy suggested we make a list of people we want to help — daughters, family and friends. Then he said, ‘So, where’s the charities?’
Frances
Frances explains: “Paddy suggested we make a list of people we want to help — daughters, family and friends.
“Then he said, ‘So, where’s the charities?’. I thought, you know, we’ve enough money. We could do something big. We could make a difference in a lot of people’s lives.”
The couple decided to start their PFC charity and, in five years, have helped tens of thousands of people.
Frances says: “Not as many as a lottery, but I’m doing my best.” Paddy, 60, had been due to move from Ireland to work for a manufacturing company in Croydon, South London.
Instead, he quit the job and they bought a £1.9million, five-bedroom home with a swimming pool in the North East, where Frances drives a Jaguar and Paddy has an Alfa Romeo.
‘He’ll get an old banger’
She says: “Our fun car is an Aston Martin. But it’s a second-hand one.”
I ask if their three daughters and three grandchildren are enjoying the win? “Yes, they are. Definitely,” Frances says.
“It comes with more issues for young people than it does for older people. After the first few months, our Natalie said to me, ‘I’m absolutely sick of sitting in on meetings where all we talk about is what happens when you die’.
“We have three daughters — one’s married, one’s got a little girl and one’s happily single. They’re very, very sensible.
“But now they’ve got issues of prenuptial agreements and what happens if we give them money and somebody divorces them.
“Natalie loves travelling, but she goes economy and whinges at me if I manage to pay for a ticket and I put her on business class.”
Remarkably, despite having millions in the bank, Frances and Paddy never fly first class. She says: “We got offered an upgrade to first class once and I refused it. Because if you’re in first class, they give you a cubicle. I don’t want a cubicle. I want to sit beside my husband.”
Giving back to locals
AFTER their win the couple set up two charities to help people in Northern Ireland and North East England.
Frances said: “In Ireland, where we both grew up, we formed the Kathleen Graham Trust, in memory of my mother.
“We moved to Hartlepool when I was 21 so I’ve lived most of my adult life here.
“We wanted to give back to the community that welcomed us and gave us so much so we formed The PFC Trust to help local people.”
During lockdown Frances discovered elderly patients at local hospitals did not have fresh nightwear from families due to distancing.
She said: “I spent the evening ordering hundreds of pairs of pyjamas and night- dresses online.”
Among the hundreds of thank you notes she has received is one that just says: “Thank you” from a man whose wheelchair she paid for to be modified.
She said: “I cried for two hours when I read his card.”
Frances begins every day at home with a 7.30am swim, where she is joined by a group of friends — the same group that will soon be helping her decorate the house for Christmas.
She says: “Our house looks like Santa’s grotto.
“My lovely friends all help me put my Christmas decorations up and we make a whole day of it.
“We wear stupid T-shirts and we have lunch brought in, with a few glasses of bubbly or whatever they want.
“We spend Christmas Day with our little granddaughter and then Boxing Day with our grandsons. One of them is 17 this year and he’ll be looking for his first car, so I would imagine his Christmas present this year is going to be substantially bigger than normal.
“But he’ll be getting an old banger. I’m not paying insurance on a brand new car for a 17-year-old. No way.”
Frances and Paddy have always worked hard, but they are busier now than they were before winning the lottery.
Every Monday morning, the couple have a diary meeting to plan their week.
I work with lots of groups in the voluntary sector. If the lottery wasn’t there, these organisations and the communities they support would be devastated.
Frances
Frances shows me her calendar, which is colour-coded and packed with meetings, charity events and trips to Ireland, where the couple are doing up a house.
She says: “Going public has worked out in our favour because I don’t think we could have done what we have done without the freedom that it has given us.”
Even now, Frances is still in contact with her lottery adviser Andy.
She says: “If anything happens, I still phone him and say what we’re going to do.
“I’m not being funny. Without the lottery, we’d be scuppered as a nation.
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“I work with lots of groups in the voluntary sector. If the lottery wasn’t there, these organisations and the communities they support would be devastated.”
In a plea to the public to back the lottery by buying a ticket, she adds: “For God’s sake, keep those two quids coming.”
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UK's biggest lottery winners
By Ethan Singh
- Anonymous winner - £195,707,000
A UK ticket-holder scooped the record EuroMillions jackpot of £195 million on July 19 2022 – the biggest National Lottery win of all time.
The holder, who remains anonymous to this day, amassed the fortune with just one lucky ticket.
- Joe and Jess Thwaite - £184,262,899.10
Britain's previous EuroMillions record holders were Joe and Jess Thwaite.
The couple won a record-breaking £184million jackpot in May 2022 and shared hopes of a Hawaiian holiday and a new horse box for their children's ponies.
Joe bought his winning ticket online on May 10, 2022, and the following morning received an email with good news.
As he learnt of the huge win, he was in disbelief and initially kept it for himself as he did not want to disturb his wife, who was sleeping.
Joe, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two children.
- Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colin and Christine Weir landed the colossal prize money in 2011 and were Europe’s second-biggest winners until someone in Italy won a jackpot worth £193m in 2019.
They splashed the cash at an astounding rate of £100,000 a week before tragedy struck.
But at the time of Colin’s death in December 2019 his share of the prize money had dwindled by around £40m.
He spent the millions living a life of luxury, forking out for sports cars, property and the football club he supported.
Colin and Christine divorced shortly before his death after being married for 38 years.
He left money for their children Carly and Jamie.
- Adrian and Gillian Brayford - £148,600,000
Adrian and Gillian won 190 million euros in a EuroMillions draw in August 2012, which came to just over £148 million.
But Adrian split from Gillian the following year because of the stress of the win.
The couple bought a Grade II listed estate in Cambridgeshire, complete with cinema and billiards room, but it was sold in 2021.
After divorcing in 2013, he failed to woo ex-sausage factory worker Marta Jarosz — but fell for stable girl Sam Burbidge.
She left him in 2017, taking 30 prize horses Adrian bought.
It might have worked out in the end for Adrian though as the former postman was seen smiling with ambulance worker Tracey Biles last year.
- Frances and Patrick Connolly - £114,969,775
Former social worker and teacher Frances set up two charitable foundations after she and her husband hit the jackpot.
They scooped almost £115 million on New Year’s Day 2019.
She estimates that she has already given away £60 million to charitable causes, as well as friends and family.
- Richard and Debbie Nuttall - £61,000,000
The couple from Colne, Lancashire, took home £61 million on January 30 2024.
Both 54, they were enjoying a holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.
But they then discovered the big EuroMillions win.
Richard revealed they originally thought they had won £2.60, but then received another email telling the pair to check their account.
Other eye-watering anonymous winners:
- 2019 - £123million
Another anonymous winner scooped up a prize of £123,458,008 in the June Superdraw rollover.
- 2021 - £122million
Following nine rollovers, one ticketholder bagged the £122,550,350 jackpot last April.
The successful participant chose to remain anonymous.
- 2018 - £121million
Another anonymous winner found their fortune during the Superdraw jackpot rollover in April 2018, securing £121,328,187.
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