£184m lottery winners to buy horsebox
‘I think we’re going to have a fulltime job managing all of this for quite some time’
THE couple who have won Britain’s biggest-ever Euromillions jackpot plan to spend their winnings on a horsebox for their ponies.
Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Staunton, Glos, won £184,262,899 on May 10 but went public yesterday. Mrs Thwaite, 44, said that their two children, both of primary school age, had always talked about going to Hawaii – now that can happen.
Before being taken to the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, to announce their win, Mrs Thwaite said they did not even own suitcases.
The family keeps animals including dogs, chickens and ponies. The children, said Mrs Thwaite, “have always wanted a horsebox for our ponies rather than the rundown trailer we use. Just to see their faces when we can make these things come true will be worth every penny.”
Mrs Thwaite runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, while Mr Thwaite, 49, is a communications sales engineer.
They own a £600,000 house, but said that money had been tight since they moved there earlier this year.
Mrs Thwaite said: “We’re right at the bottom because we’ve pushed everysherborne thing to get this house, and to have our ponies at home, and that’s been our dream.”
The family previously lived in Pendock, Glos. Yvonne Baker, 58, who runs the local post office and village shop, and often served the Thwaites, called them “a nice, normal family”. She described them as “very big with the horses. They’re definitely not flashy. A wellies-and-leggings sort of family”.
Mr Thwaite, Mrs Baker said, is “a lovely guy – so funny”.
Asked how they celebrated their win, Mrs Thwaite said the family had gone out for a meal. Of their first spending after winning the jackpot, she said: “To tell the truth, we bought bedroom fur
niture. We bought a chest of drawers and a wardrobe. Other than that, we haven’t done anything.”
Mr Thwaite is leaving his job and Mrs Thwaite may do the same. “I think we’re going to have a full-time job managing all of this for quite some time,” she said.