Tuesday, January 16, 2024 – A jackpot winner has revealed how her relationship with her family collapsed after winning Euromillions lottery.
Gillian Bayford won £148million from a lucky ticket in 2012,
but things quickly fell apart with her family members.
The Scot lived, Suffolk, UK, with her then-husband Adrian
Bayford when she won the life-changing amount and despite giving
"£20million" to family members over the next few years a rift
appeared in the family.
Her parents stopped talking to her after she gained
attention in the press, she told The Sun in 2016.
She said: “They are disgusted when I get that kind of
attention.
“They’ve disowned me because I embarrass them.
“But they’ve been more than happy to take my money."
The lottery winner revealed how she missed out on an
invitation to her brother's wedding and how she remarried - to Brian Deans, a
conman convicted of stealing £13k from Tesco.
In that 2016 interview, Gillian said: “It's upsetting and
raw. The money was supposed to make everybody happy. But it's made them
demanding and greedy.
“They (my family) have lost touch with where they've come
from.”
Gillian's parents were broke and lived in a caravan at the
time of her win.
Her father also had £700,000 in debt, shared with her
brother, that they had accumulated through failed businesses.
So, Gillian paid off the debt and bought her father and
mother more money so they could buy an apartment in Carnoustie on Scotland's
east coast.
Then, nine months later, her parents asked they give her
brother more money, £800,000, for a new playcentre business.
But, Gillian says her brother then stopped talking to her
and got married in secret.
“That was the first thing we paid for.
“Adrian’s family had to wait weeks but my parents and
brother were first.
“They got their cars and houses before anyone.”
He splashed the money on a £300,000 house, Audis with
private plates, and the wedding, she said.
Gillian said: “I can hold my head up because I know I’ve
taken them out of a situation.
“They brought our name into disrespect in the village and we
had people threatening to torch the family house.
“My dad and brother built up one company after another and
then closed them down.
“I’ve bailed them out of every debt.”
She said that her dad tried to take control of the money she
won, and repeatedly tried to claim a stake in her business.
Gillian, who now lives in Dundee, claimed: “They have lost
touch with where they’ve come from.
“They’re rubbing people’s noses in it by flashing their
cash, which I think is downright nasty.”
She said they fell out with her because of a story in the
paper which embarrassed her parents.
In an interview with the Mirror in 2016, Bayford's mother,
Brenda McCulloch, described feeling "sad" about the lack of contact
with her daughter and grandchildren.
She said that while her daughter was "incredibly
generous," she disputed the £20 million sum, claiming it was a much lower
amount they were given.
Gillian also separated with her husband Adrian just 15
months after
winning the prize.
Adrian told The Daily Mail in 2013 that the pair had split
because they hadn't spent any time together as a couple - with him working on
maintaining their Georgian mansion.
He said: "When you win the lottery it’s so stressful.
"I’ve worked so hard on those grounds [at the mansion],
I’ve not had a break, we’ve never had time together as a couple.
"I mean you cannot change what’s happened. It is just
something that happened. But we’re great friends, we’re still getting on."
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