I splashed £20m of my £148m lotto win on relatives and they won’t speak to me
A WOMAN who scooped a £148million lottery jackpot with her then husband has claimed the windfall ruined her life.
EuroMillions winner Gillian Bayford, 43, says the £20million she gave to relatives has sparked a bitter family feud.
Ms Bayford split from husband Adrian 15 months after the win in August 2012 and says she has not spoken to her “greedy” family for nearly a year.
She claims her mother, father and brother “disowned” her last May, but still expect her to bail them out.
She also accused them of becoming “downright nasty” by constantly “flashing the cash” she handed over to them.
She claims her brother Colin, 41, drives cars with personalised number plates and that her father Ian, 71, refuses to fly economy class on trips abroad.
She also said her father tried to take control of the money and sought a stake in her business.
Greedy
Ms Bayford, a former hospital healthcare assistant who lived in Haverhill, Suffolk, at the time of the win, said: “It’s upsetting and raw. The money was supposed to make everybody happy.
“But it’s made them [my family] demanding and greedy.
“They have lost touch where they’ve come from.”
She said she paid off family debts and gave her parents more money for a flat in Carnoustie on Scotland’s east coast.
Her brother married in secret and stopped talking to her despite her helping him with a new venture, she said.
He drives an Audi and has a £288,000 five-bedroomed house.
Her parents, she claims, fly to holiday destinations including Florida and South Africa and refuse to go economy class.
She added: “If they come back and knock at my door I won’t be bailing them out again.”
Her family branded the accusations “complete nonsense”.
Ms Bayford was recently involved in a row with employees at a cafe she bought with part of her winnings.
The mother-of-two purchased Sugar and Spice near Arbroath harbour, but suddenly closed it last month. Workers claimed they with Happier times for Gillian and Adrian Bayford after landing their jackpot were to receive just £100 from the multi-millionaire.
Some were reportedly sent a letter telling them that they were not entitled to redundancy or notice because they were “casual workers”.
Meanwhile, her former husband has opened a memorabilia store selling signed products and lifesize Hollywood cut-outs.
Mr Bayford vowed to continue running his second-hand record shop after he won.
But 15 months after the Bayfords’ windfall they divorced, blaming the stress of winning. Both have new partners. They are the latest prize winners who say their lives have been ruined by a windfall.
Lotto lout Michael Carroll, of Norfolk, won nearly £10million in 2002, but had to take a job in a biscuit factory for £204 a week just 10 years later after blowing his fortune.
Callie Rogers, of Cumbria, was Britain’s youngest winner at 16, scooping £1.9million in 2003, but she frittered it on parties, drugs, cosmetic surgery and holidays. in and helping itself. Grandad Kelvin said: “I was completely taken aback. In other circumstances I would have loved to have seen a wild otter.”
He has since netted the ponds and his only visitors are a few nosey cats and a hedgehog.