JUDITH KEPPEL, NOVEMBER 2000 I was skint & getting a bit worried

A DISTANT cousin of Camilla ParkerBowles, Judith became the show’s first million-pound winner in November 2000.

She is still the only woman to have pocketed the top prize.

Her £1million multiple-choice question was to name the husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Judith correctly said it was Henry II.

The win could not have come sooner for twice-divorced Judith.

At the time the mum-of-three was a newly qualified garden designer trying to set up her own business and struggling to make ends meet.

After reaching £16,000 on the show before an episode ran out of time, she treated herself to a cashmere sweater from Harrods.

Then after winning a million a week later, teetotal Judith, who attended Alcoholics Anonymous after her divorce from her first husband in 1980, celebrated with a cola and enrolled on a four-day money management course.

Cautious of wasting her win, she bought a £20,000 Audi, went on holiday to India and made a donation to a tiger conservation charity.

She also swapped her townhouse in Fulham, South West London, for a small flat in the capital, and bought a property in Albi, south-west France.

In 2003, Judith became a member of the resident team on BBC quiz show Eggheads – a role she still has. Judith, now 78, recalls the way she

TIME TO THINK Judith recalls triumph

FIRST WINNER Her reaction on show got on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? – by calling hundreds of times.

She says: “I targeted one episode, and basically stayed on the telephone until they answered, which took about a day and a half. I calculated, if each call cost 75p, I’d get all that back if I got into the chair – forgetting about the fastest finger round.

“At one point BT rang me up and said, ‘do you realise your telephone’s being used rather a lot?’. I was pretty skint after my divorce and I was starting to get a little worried. That’s one of the reasons I did it.

“I think if I didn’t win the money I’d be in the workhouse, frankly.”

Judith adds: “Thankfully, I didn’t get any sports, science or pop music questions. I wouldn’t have been any good on those.

“The £1million question was extraordinary. I’d been in France that summer and as I drove back I stopped in a place called Fontevraud, where there was this abbey with four tombs.

“One was Eleanor and the other was her husband, Henry II. If I hadn’t stopped there I wouldn’t have known, and would probably have forfeited the question and taken the money.

“Winning the money gave me a huge sense of relief. I didn’t see it as something to go out and spend, but to invest and use to fund my life.”

Judith, who has five grandchildren, adds: “I did eventually buy a house in France, where I lived for six months of the year. But I made a huge loss when I sold it five years ago.

“Still, I think the amount I have today is about the same as when I won it. It means I have something to leave my family.”