By Julia Richardson and Dan Hall
THEY say that money can’t buy happiness – as those who’ve experienced the “lottery curse” know all too well.
Despite hitting the jackpot, countless lotto winners have suffered astonishing tragedies from the breakdown of their marriages to losing everything they own.
Cocaine car crash
Callie Rogers 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 set about spending her money.
Within a month Callie, who was in foster care after leaving home when her biological parents split up, had also bought a £180,000 bungalow and a £76,000 home for her mum.
She ultimately blew thousands on wild parties, three boob jobs and drugs, plus around £300,000 on designer clothes.
She later described the win as a “curse” which drove her to consider suicide.
Eighteen years after her win, Callie was found to be claiming Universal Credit after blowing her fortune. The revelation came during a trial after she was involved in a car crash while on cocaine in December 2020.
‘Roman-style orgies’
The self-styled ‘King of Chavs’ was 19 when he scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002.
Michael Carroll, who was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket, splashed £340,000 on a six-bedroom home in Norfolk.
Not content with the swish property, he lavished £400,000 on a series of upgrades including a swimming pool and a car track in the garden.
Michael also spent around £1million on shares in his beloved Rangers FC and £49,000 on a BMW.
By February 2010 Michael was declared bankrupt and was claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.
He lost his entire fortune and was found working for £10 an hour chopping wood and delivering coal in 2019.
Financial crash catastrophe
Roger Griffiths and his wife Lara netted £1.8million on the National Lottery in 2005.
The couple enjoyed the high life and went on a lavish spending spree splashing £800,000 on a barn conversion in Wetherby, West Yorks, along with flash cars and five-star holidays in Dubai, New York and Monaco.
Wannabe rock star Roger also spent £25,000 making a record with his old band from Lancaster University.
The couple invested in property and a beauty salon but the financial crash saw the value of their portfolio plummet.
On New Year’s Eve 2010, the couple’s home went up in flames – a disaster which was made worse by the house being underinsured.
By 2013 the money had gone and the couple had split up, each blaming each other for the reversal in their fortunes.
From mansion to homeless
Ex-jailbird Lee Ryan scooped the £6.5million jackpot just 17 weeks after the lottery was launched on November 14 1994.
He made headlines when it emerged he was accused of handling stolen cars and was imprisoned for 18 months after his huge payout.
Lee then spent a decade living the high life and splashed his cash on luxury cars, a helicopter and a £2million mansion.
But Lee ended up penniless, spent two years living on the street and shacked up in a tiny flat in London he shared with homeless pals.
Furlough cash row
Gillian and Adrian Bayford’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 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.
The following year, Gillian was convicted of attacking her ex-lover Gavin Innes during their relationship, which ended in 2017.
Gillian came under fire when it was revealed she’d claimed nearly £40,000 in furlough cash for her property business despite her huge win.
At the time she said: “I’m not paying it back.”
Death after lotto win ‘destroyed life’
Margaret Loughrey scooped £27m in 2013 and became Northern Ireland’s biggest winner at the time – but she admitted that huge fortune didn’t bring her happiness.
She said at one stage: “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.
Moving tributes were paid to the winner, who was living in Strabane, saying that she was “well known and did a lot of good, charitable work”.
