Advertisement

‘I’ve got a secret’: UK’s biggest lottery winner waited 20 minutes to tell wife

Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184M from the draw on Tuesday 10 May, 2022, at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Picture date: Thursday May 19, 2022.
Joe and Jess Thwaite from Gloucestershire were named the largest EuroMillions winners in British history. (PA)

The lucky winners of Britain's biggest ever EuroMillions jackpot have been revealed.

Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, scooped a record-breaking £184,262,899 in last week's draw.

Mr Thwaite, 49, said he found out on Tuesday morning while his wife was still in bed – and revealed he let her sleep in till her alarm went off while he flicked through Rightmove, with the pricing filter turned off.

Speaking of the moment they found out they'd won, Mrs Thwaite, 44, said her husband came into their room and said: "I've got a secret to tell you."

She said: "He told me and I was like, 'Don't be silly.' I was like, 'Oh Joe, let me look at it,' thinking he'd looked at it wrong.

"We just kind of thought this is a fun game to play, this is wrong but let's enjoy this fun moment of thinking we'd won the lottery.

"I thought it'll be on the news app: 'Tells everyone they've won the EuroMillions'."

Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of �184M from the draw on Tuesday 10 May, 2022, at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Picture date: Thursday May 19, 2022.
The Thwaites celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184m. (PA)
Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of �184M from the draw on Tuesday 10 May, 2022, at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Picture date: Thursday May 19, 2022.
Joe Thwaite said he found out on Tuesday morning while his wife was still in bed. (PA)

The couple, who have been married for 11 years, have two primary school-age children, and Mr Thwaite also has two children at university from a previous marriage.

Mr Thwaite works as a communications sales engineer and Mrs Thwaite manages the business of a hairdressing salon she runs with her sister.

She said: “The win gives us time to dream which we haven’t had before. We’ve had one week to think about this and we now have time to share lots of experiences and go on adventures with our family and friends.”

Mrs Thwaite revealed that her father had prepared her for the win almost her whole life, having spent his life dreaming of winning.

She said: “My dad played the National Lottery all his life and constantly dreamed of winning. He would always ask us what we’d do when we won, how we’d spend it, who we’d treat.

"It was a regular conversation and I feel like he was preparing us. Maybe that is why I seem so chilled, as I’ve kind of been ready to win for years.”

Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of �184M from the draw on Tuesday 10 May, 2022, at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Picture date: Thursday May 19, 2022.
The couple have been married 11 years. (PA)

Mrs Thwaites' father died seven years ago, and her husband took up the baton of playing the lottery.

He said: “The family always ask me if I have a ticket for the big draws. While I don’t play every week, I do a Lucky Dip when there is a big jackpot.

"Although I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of luck in the past."

The new record-breakers mark the second EuroMillions jackpot won in the UK this year, with the £109 million jackpot from a draw in February claimed by an anonymous winner.

The £184m jackpot could buy four Caribbean islands or 11 six-bedroom luxury properties in London's affluent Hyde Park - just to give an idea of the scale of the riches the lucky winners will be enjoying.

Only 14 players have ever won a jackpot of more than £100m, with the current record holder an anonymous winner of £170m in October 2019.

Watch: Lucky UK ticket holder claims £184m EuroMillions lottery winnings

Who are the UK's biggest ever lottery winners?

The biggest UK lottery winners were all from EuroMillions draws:

1. Anonymous, £170,221,000

The biggest winner to date scooped £170m in October 2019, after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw.

2. Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000

Colin and Chris Weir from Largs, North Ayrshire, bagged their historic winnings in July 2011, making them the biggest UK winners at the time. They donated much of their money and set up the The Weir Charitable Trust in 2013. In April 2021, it was announced the pair were divorcing. Mr Weir died later that year

Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Ayrshire, kiss during a photocall at the Macdonald Inchyra Hotel & Spa in Falkirk, as Europe's biggest Lottery winners were today continuing the celebrations after their life-changing 161 million prize.
Colin and Chris Weir bagged £161,653,000 in 2011. (PA)

3. Adrian and Gillian Bayford, £148,656,000

Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Suffolk, won big in 2012, and celebrated by taking their children out for pizza. The pair split just 15 months later.

4. Anonymous, £123,458,008

The fourth biggest National Lottery winner won a Superdraw rollover jackpot in June 2019, and decided not to go public with their success.

5. Anonymous, £122,550,350

After nine rollovers, one lucky anonymous ticket-holder bagged more than £122m in April 2021.

Adrian Bayford, 41, and wife Gillian, 40, from Haverhill, Suffolk, after a press conference at Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire, after they won �148.6 million on Friday's EuroMillions jackpot.
Adrian Bayford, 41, and wife Gillian, 40, from Haverhill, Suffolk, won £148,656,000 in 2012. (PA)