She split with he rthen-husband and fellow lotto winner, just 15 months after the win
In August 2012, the life of a British woman changed forever after she won a whopping $187.5 million (approximately Rs 1,551 crore) in a EuroMillions lottery. However, over a decade later, Gillian Bayford recently revealed how the sudden influx of wealth had unexpected consequences. According to New York Post, Ms Bayford said she severed ties with her family after they became too ''greedy'' and tried to take advantage of her generosity.
Tragically, she split with her then-husband and fellow lotto winner, just 15 months after the win, allegedly due to the stress of managing the colossal wealth. Ms. Bayford also claimed that she gave roughly $25 million to her family members and started paying off debts that relatives had accumulated.
She shelled out $1,324,304 to pay off the family debts, which included money owed by her father and brother Colin over a series of failed business ventures, Business Insider reported. She continued to support her family financially and even bought a $522,388 penthouse apartment in eastern Scotland for her parents. However, they kept demanding and pushing her to give them more money. She relented to their demands and gave his brother around $1.5 million, for a new play-center business.
Their relationship soured after that, as she claimed that her brother stopped talking to her and didn't invite her to his wedding. At one point, her father repeatedly tried to take control of her winnings. She eventually fell out with her parents in 2016, after they said that their daughter was an embarrassment to them. Though her mother called her daughter ''generous'', she claimed that the money Ms Bayford allegedly gave the family was greatly exaggerated.
She refuted her mother's accusations, claiming, ''Every word that comes out of their mouths is a lie. I wish them a happy life, but there will be no reconciliation now.''
Ms Bayford lamented that while the money was "supposed to make everyone happy," it had "made them demanding and greedy.''
''They have lost touch with where they've come from. They're rubbing people's noses in it by flashing their cash, which I think is downright nasty,'' Ms Bayford added,