Lotto winner leaves husband ... for man 100 times richer!
£2m couple divorce after wife’s relationship with £260m tycoon
JASON and Victoria Jones had been married for only a month when they scooped £2.3million on the lottery thanks to a ticket bought with the last pound coin in her purse.
But despite the win meaning they could afford their own luxury home and a £70,000 sports car, it didn’t bring them happiness.
For the couple have become the latest victims of the ‘lottery curse’ and are now getting divorced – after Mrs Jones met a businessman one hundred times richer than her husband.
Mr Jones, 41, says he is devastated after finding out his wife had begun a relationship with the mattress tycoon Mike Clare, who sold bed retailer Dreams for £222million in 2008.
And for her part Mrs Jones, also 41 – who says she is ‘just good friends’ with the entrepreneur – claims their lottery scoop has ‘ruined’ her life.
The win, in 2004, allowed her to quit her job as a credit controller and she and her husband went on to build an impressive property portfolio in Devizes, Wiltshire, as well as owning a holiday home in Weymouth.
But she maintains the money was not worth it, saying: ‘It’s probably one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me. Without a shadow of a doubt.
‘The stress it gives you in life and even 12 years down the line, I’m still classed as a lottery winner and it’s horrible. It ruins your life. People treat you differently – it’s just not a nice thing.’
Their relationship began to unravel on Boxing Day last year, when Mr Jones says his wife announced she was leaving him.
But the pair, who have been married for 12 years, decided to make another go of things and went to Cape Verde in March.
However, while on their ‘make or break’ trip, Mr Jones discovered his wife was in contact with multimillionaire Mr Clare after reading text messages on her phone. He recalled: ‘We went on holiday to patch things up and that’s when I found out she was texting this bloke Mike.
‘I said, “Things have happened, but I still want to make a go of things”, and she said, “No, I’m not in love with you”.’
Mrs Jones insisted that she was just friends with Mr Clare, 61, but allegedly admitted she was seeing someone else when they returned home.
Meanwhile Mr Jones, who carried on working at a scrapyard after their win, has told how his wife’s relationship with the
‘Worst thing to happen to me’
tycoon has destroyed his life. The father- of-two, from Bromham, Wiltshire, said last night: ‘I haven’t worked for about eight months because [our break-up] has affected me in a big way.
‘You’re happy families and then I’ve had to sell the house I live in, the house in Weymouth we used to go to every weekend, and we’ve got all these properties in Devizes and we’ve got to split them all up.’ And now Mr Clare, whose £260million fortune makes him one of the wealthiest men in the uK, has admitted he is ‘seeing’ Mrs Jones.
That’s despite still being married to his wife of 37 years, Carol, 57, from whom he separated in August last year.
The entrepreneur, who appears in the Sunday Times Rich List, said he has no plans to divorce his wife, adding: ‘I am seeing Victoria Jones. She didn’t leave [her husband] for me.
‘We’re not living together or anything like that, I’m seeing her. I’m quite friendly with my wife, I had a meeting with her yesterday.
‘I haven’t just seen Victoria. Everyone knows I’ve seen different girls and [my wife] is aware.’
The Joneses’ split follows a pattern similar to so many lottery-winning couples before them.
They include Les and Samantha Scadding, who scooped £45.5million in 2009, and divorced in 2013, and Adrian and Gillian Bayford, who won £148million in 2012, and split just a year later.
Mr Clare made his fortune launching Dreams in 1987 and growing it from one store to more than 200. He now runs property firm Clarenco and owns £95million worth of properties.