How ‘lucky’ lottery couples were torn apart by eight-girl orgies, cringe chat-up lines and £2k-a-day cocaine binges
LOTTERY winners are among the luckiest people on the planet – but disturbingly unfortunate when it comes to love.
Karl Crompton has become the latest jackpot winner to fall foul of the "lottery curse" as his childhood sweetheart left him – and she could end up taking half of his £22million fortune with her.
Megabucks Karl, who won £11million on the National Lottery aged 23 in 1996, had doubled his cash through savvy investments.
But wife Nicole, who's also the mum of the couple's two kids, has left the £2million home he built for them in Fylde, Lancs., and was spotted not wearing her wedding ring last week.
"We’re all a bit worried about Karl," an anonymous pal said. "He seems heartbroken.”
But alarmingly, they're just the latest in a long line of lottery-winning couples to have split after cashing in their winning ticket.
From rows about their fortune to coke-fuelled orgies, here are some of the most infamous victims of the lottery curse.
Eight-girl orgies and £2K-a-day cocaine binges
Michael Carroll won £9.7million in 2002 – and quickly set about burning through it with a notorious lifestyle of spectacular indulgence.
His partner at the time, Sandra Aitken, was pregnant with daughter Brooke when Michael spent his last £4 on the winning ticket.
And although she married him in 2003, Sandra soon left after being appalled by his incessant partying, accusing him of cheating on her with sex workers.
She took £1.4million in a settlement – but once she was gone, Michael really dialled up the hedonism with what he called "Roman-style orgies" at his five-bed Norfolk mansion while spending £2,000 on cocaine in a single day.
The girls would have all their gear off and they'd be serving cocaine on silver plates
Michael Carroll
“In every room in my house people would be f*** ing," . "Women would just come up to me and offer me sex.
“The girls would have all their gear off and they’d be serving cocaine on silver plates.
“I think the most women I have been with in one night is eight. That’s why they call me Master Micky.”
Now 36, Michael lost his entire fortune and was found working for £10 an hour chopping wood and delivering coal last year.
But despite losing the cash and his wife, he revealed earlier this year that he's now found love again with stay-at-home mum Rebecca McNeil.
Rebecca, 26, says: "I wouldn’t have fancied him if he was still a multi-millionaire."
Sun, sex and suing for damages
Gareth and Catherine Bull's lives were changed forever when they scooped the £41million Euromillions jackpot in 2012.
But within five years their relationship was in tatters, with Gareth moving out of the home he shared with Catherine and their two sons in 2017.
Ex-brickie Gareth splashed out on hospitality boxes at Wembley and Old Trafford, along with a £1.5million holiday home in Tenerife.
And it was in Tenerife that he met mum-of-four Donna Desporte, who had a nine-month fling with Gareth three years ago while he was still married to Catherine.
Donna says she was swept off her feet by the multi-millionaire when he turned up at her bar and told her to: "Google me!"
But their relationship ended with him ignoring her calls and not responding to messages.
"I’m so upset with him," Donna said at the time.
"We had a special relationship. He told me he loved me, and he ought to respect that and not brush me under the carpet."
Last year, Gareth won £12,255 in damages after he sued Donna for breaching his privacy when she wrote a tell-all book about their relationship, reports.
Runaway ex & fraudster lover
Adrian and Gillian Bayford had been married for eight years when they scooped an astonishing £148million on the Euromillions in 2012.
But their relationship unravelled just 15 months later, with both parties partly blaming stress from their mind-boggling win.
Ever since, the pair's love lives have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Adrian shacked up with ex-horse groom Samantha Burbidge, who is 16 years his junior.
But after three years together, she bolted from his £6million house along with with 30 horses, a horse box, and a car he gifted her to get back together with her ex-boyfriend.
In 2018, his new partner Lisa Kemp dumped him after she found saucy emails he'd sent to an ex.
And earlier this year, Gillian was convicted of attacking her ex-lover Gavin Innes during their relationship, which ended in 2017.
In 2018, she married fraudster Brian Deans, who stole more than £13,500 from Tesco in a con involving putting through fake customer refunds.
"I’ve known from the very beginning and it doesn’t bother me," Gillian said after their wedding.
"Everyone has a past but you can’t live in the past. You’ve got to move on."
'Dripping in diamonds'
Les Scadding and Samantha Peachey-Scadding won £45.5million in 2009 and thought their monumental lump sum would transform their lives for the better.
But despite having been married for two years when they won the jackpot, their relationship broke down within just four years of the win.
The couple from Gwent, Wales, who had a 21-year age gap, dropped £1.5million on a mansion in their home county and £2million on a villa in Barbados.
Ex-lorry driver Les told reporters his account was £68 overdrawn when their numbers came up.
And although neither of them spoke publicly about the split in 2013, a source told the Daily Mail that they had radically different attitudes towards money.
"The money changed Sam," the source said.
“Les was never materialistic, but Sam has a passion for diamonds – she drips in them."
Record-breaker tragedy and posthumous party
Colin and Christine Weir won the then-highest ever Euromillions jackpot of £161.6 million in 2011.
Their win was so huge that it made them the 22nd richest people in Scotland – but they began to drift apart after their colossal windfall.
Retired STV cameraman Colin and ex-psychiatric nurse Christine made philanthropic contributions with their winnings, creating the Weir Charitable Trust.
But they did also snap up the £850,000 Knock House, a four-bedroom detached home in 23 acres of gardens and woodland on the outskirts of Largs in Scotland.
In April 2019, the couple revealed that they were amicably divorcing after 38 years of marriage.
They'd been living apart for a year before the announcement, with the divorce being made official in September.
Just three months later, Colin died of kidney failure and sepsis aged 72.
The dad-of-two's funeral took place in Glasgow in January this year, which included a stop at Partick Thistle's ground, Firhill Stadium.
Colin had invested in the local footie team after his win and, in 2016, the club renamed its main stand the Colin Weir Stand in his honour.
Last month, his .
And shortly after he died, Colin laid on a luxury "£1million" party for his pals from beyond the grave following his short illness.
Mourners enjoyed lobster and drank £340-a-bottle champagne at the lavish event.
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"Colin was certain before he died that he wanted to give his pals a great party to remember him by," a close friend told the .
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"So he booked out one of the biggest rooms at Trump Turnberry hotel and treated all of his friends to the biggest and grandest party any of us had ever seen.
"It was amazing.”