Some lottery winners say their lives won’t change... mine bloody will!
It’s only my wallet that’s become more attractive, jokes £71m factory worker
ADE Goodchild’s days of toiling in a factory as a metal-worker ended for ever yesterday – thanks to a £71million lottery win that catapulted him into the jet set.
Most people would expect such immense wealth to do wonders for their love life, but 20- stone, twicemarried Mr Goodchild – who is single – is under no such illusion.
Celebrating his jackpot, the wealthiest winning singleton to go public said he had suddenly found himself a lot more attractive to the opposite sex, and had been inundated with Facebook friend requests from strangers.
But the 58-year-old joked: ‘Anybody I think I couldn’t have pulled before has got no chance, because I haven’t suddenly become more attractive overnight – just my wallet has!’ He also promised to make the most of his good fortune, adding: ‘ I’m not one of these winners who is going to say this win won’t change me. It bloody well will – or at least I’ll give it a damn good go!’
Despite this, he admitted he would keep his six-year- old Ford Focus as a runaround because even though he plans to buy a Bentley, he doesn’t want to scratch it at his local Tesco car park.
Mr Goodchild refused to say whether he would give his ex-wife Suzanna, whom he divorced just 18 months ago, some of his new-found wealth. But her mother insisted last night that she did not want any. Lesley Smith, 76, said: ‘ She knows she might be entitled to a large slice of his win, but she said she doesn’t want a penny.’
Mrs Smith added: ‘ She wishes him well but it’s a part of her life that’s over. She said he’d let himself go, become very self-centred.’
Last night, his first wife, Catherine Berkeley, 57, said she was happy for her former husband of seven years, and wasn’t interested in seeking any money from him.
Mrs Berkeley, who lives with her husband Tim in a hamlet nearby, added: ‘I’d just like to wish him all the best and a happy life.’
Mr Goodchild, who lives in a £170,000 terraced house in Hereford with two labradoodles, discovered he had won £71,057,439 – Britain’s 15th largest jackpot – on Saturday morning.
He has already handed in his notice at the factory in Hereford where he has worked for 24 years.
He said he planned to live the high life – starting with replacing his three-bed home with a gated house with a Jacuzzi and a pool – ‘plus a few staff to help run it’. He also plans to buy a house for his parents, Gloria and Geoffrey, 84, and look after his extended family, who ‘won’t have to work any more’. He wants to visit the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids and watch the Rugby World Cup in Japan. Mr Goodchild bought his winning £2.50 lucky dip ticket at his local Co-op, and kept it in his sock drawer until checking it on Saturday morning.
Because it hadn’t been verified, he even managed to keep his win secret from 18 relatives he met on Sunday for a pub lunch.
He has done the lottery since it started in 1994, and had recently spent £27 on it every week.
He celebrated by watching Wales win the rugby Six Nations Grand Slam while eating a takeaway pizza – ‘the sort of things millionaires do every Saturday’, he said.
Mr Goodchild revealed he always felt he would win some money in his life, adding: ‘I thought, “I’ll be rich one day, I’ll have to be lucky to get it”. Lucky is what I turned out to be. I’m just about the happiest bloke you could imagine.’
‘I’m the happiest bloke you could imagine’