Unlucky in love
In 1996 he won £11m on the lottery aged 23 and is now worth £22m ... but after splitting from his school crush he’ll have to give HALF his cash away
AFTER landing an £11million lottery fortune aged 23, Karl Crompton was dubbed ‘Britain’s most eligible bachelor’.
A love of fast cars and superbikes would eventually be replaced by a life of steady domesticity and financial prudence after the former Comet trainee married his ‘school crush’ Nicole Roach a decade later.
Mr Crompton built up a buy-to-let empire which doubled the size of his fortune to £22million and the couple went on to have two children.
But almost a quarter of a century since his life-changing win in 1996, he has reportedly separated from his wife. They are not understood to have a pre-nuptial agreement, meaning she could now get half of his cash.
Mrs Crompton, 43, is said to have moved out of the £2million house he built with his winnings and set up
‘I don’t want to be famous or posh’
home 20 minutes’ drive away. She was spotted getting out of a Range Rover – bought for her by her 47year-old husband – without her wedding ring on, The Sun reported.
‘We’ve heard they are divorcing and she’s expected to get half,’ a friend told the paper.
Another said Mr Crompton ‘seems heartbroken’ by the split.
It is a far cry from those early days after Mr Crompton went public with his huge win, just 18 months after the launch of the National Lottery under John Major’s government.
The ‘laddish’ bachelor lived in his parents’ semi- detached house near Blackpool and had recently split from his air stewardess girlfriend.
At the time Miss Roach – who he had admired from afar at school – was inconveniently involved with someone else.
Instead, Mr Crompton contented himself with splashing out on luxuries such as a £60,000 Porsche and £18,000 Ducati superbike, blowing £3.5million in 12 months.
An on-off romance with Miss Roach eventually followed.
But this was interrupted by a bid for TV stardom when he moved to London to present Channel 4’s Big Breakfast.
Eventually, the couple settled down, with Mr Crompton later recalling: ‘I remember lying in a hotel room in London and thinking, “What am I doing here?”.
‘ I’m an ordinary northern bloke. I don’t want to be famous or posh. I just want Nicole.’ He bought a former hospital in rural Lancashire and demolished it to make way for a fivebedroom mansion with swimming pool and tight security.
Rather than fritter away his winnings, he began investing in property and his financial acumen allowed him to double the size of his fortune.
Talking about his life slowing down after the birth of his son Ethan in 2003, he recalled swapping his Porsche Cabriolet and buying a modest people-carrier. ‘People kept saying, “Why on earth are you driving that?” But it’s perfect. I can get the baby seat in, dump all Ethan’s stuff in the back and still have room for the shopping.
‘The thing about expensive possessions is that they can worry you – you worry your Porsche might get scratched or nicked. With the Ford, I feel carefree and anonymous.’
Mr Crompton said he spent his days ‘pottering, decorating the house and garden, cleaning the pool or mucking out the lake’.
Meanwhile his wife – with whom he went on to have a second son, with the boys now aged 16 and 12 – has continued to work as a nurse, expressing on social media her pride in working for the NHS.
Mr and Mrs Crompton declined to comment.