EuroMillions results LIVE — UK couple unveiled as winners of huge £61m jackpot
A UK couple has been named as the lucky winners of a huge £61m EuroMillions jackpot.
Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne, Lancashire, were unveiled in a press conference today after winning the huge prize.
The pair were holidaying in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, when they discovered their lives had changed forever.
“I thought it was odd and there must be a glitch in the system to get a duplicate email but I logged in again to my National Lottery account to check. We were totally stunned, it said we had won over £61M," said the winner.
Richard continued: “We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix up."
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Pictures: Richard and Debbie Nuttall hit the jackpot
Richard's first big purchase
Richard has already made his first big purchase since winning the £61m EuroMillions jackpot.
He bought a brand new BMW X5, which was selected due to its extra large boot to transport golf clubs.
Richard, who will quit his accountancy business at the end of the financial year, says he plans to play more golf in the UK and abroad.
He even has a "golf swing room" as a wishlist for his new house.
What are the odds of winning EuroMillions?
The life-changing jackpot is hard to scoop.
With between 80 to 100 million people purchasing a ticket for a EuroMillions draw each week, it proves stiff competition.
In order to win the cash prize, players need to match all five main numbers and both lucky star numbers.
But punters only have a 1 in 139,838,160 chance of bagging the top prize. Matching five numbers and one star has odds of 1 in 6,991,908.
There is a 1 in 22 chance of matching two numbers in the draw. The approximate overall odds of winning a prize in EuroMillions are 1 in 13.
Richard reflects on life-changing win
Richard, who along with his wife Debbie hit a £61m EuroMillions jackpot, is looking forward to taking life a bit easier as he reflected on his life-changing news.
“It’s crazy to think that just five weeks ago, we had been looking to downsize to a small bungalow to live out the next few years," he said. "We even found one nearby that needed a lot of work and were considering an offer. Now we are very much upsizing, with plenty of land for Debbie and the dog to enjoy.
"Our lives are going to be so different. We have worked hard all our lives and we are now very much looking forward to taking life a bit easier. But not just that, this win will also change the lives of those closest to us, and hopefully the next generation after that too.”
Couple takes 29th spot on National Lottery rich list
Richard and Debbie have taken the 29th spot on the National Lottery rich list.
They are the 39th UK winner to bank a prize of £50m or more on EuroMillions, and join the more than 7,000 millionaires created by The National Lottery since 1994.
The latest jackpot prize was £123,416,462, which was shared between the couple and another lucky winner in Spain.
Richard and Debbie to support charity
Richard and Debbie will continue to support a charity close to their hearts.
The couple are ambassadors for a charity called BK's Heroes, which was set up in their nephew’s (Ben King) memory after he died of a rare condition, Tubular Interstitial Nephritis and Uveitis, at age 27.
The charity aims to raise awareness of brain cancer and kidney disease, as well as raising funds for research into prevention and treatment of these illnesses.
Richard said: “This charity means so much to our family and we are all involved. It was originally set up to raise funds for the ward where Ben was so brilliantly cared for but we have gone on to raise much more. Ben was such an inspiration to all of us. He was incredibly brave and positive throughout his treatment and it was his wish for this charity to be set up to do what it can to help lives in the future.”
How to play
Contestants need five main number plus two Lucky Stars to win the EuroMillions jackpot.
However, large sums are still up for grabs if you match five main numbers and one Lucky Star.
Even with no Lucky Stars, if you still draw five main numbers you can win a significant amount.
The guaranteed price in the UK Millionaire Maker, which you receive automatic entry into if you buy a EuroMillions ticket, is £1 million.
To play pick five numbers from 1-50 and two Lucky Stars from 1-12, or you can opt for randomly selected numbers.
You can choose to play on a Tuesday or a Friday, or both and the number of weeks you want to play.
For £2.50 you can play up to seven lines of numbers and buy up to 10 pay slips at a time.
History of the EuroMillions
EuroMillions is a transnational lottery that requires seven correct numbers to win the jackpot.
The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 7, 2004, by three organisations: France's Française des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain and the Camelot in the UK.
The Austrian, Belgian, Irish, Luxembourgish, Portuguese and Swiss lotteries later also joined the draw.
A previous UK winner whose whole life was altered with their jackpot, was a player who wanted to remain anonymous on October 8, 2019.
They walked off with a whopping £170,221,000.
Biggest Lottery wins in the world
- £1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
- £1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
- £633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
- £625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
- £575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
Lottery win makes couple richer than UK's biggest pop stars
The eye-watering win makes Richard and Debbie richer than Stormzy and Dua Lipa.
Stormzy, one of the biggest names in the UK music scene, has a reported £26million in the bank.
Meanwhile, Dua Lipa has seen her wealth more than double in the past three years to take her fortune to an estimated £60million.
National Lottery delighted after 'life-changing win'
Following news of Richard and Debbie's win, Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said: “This is absolutely incredible news and we’re delighted that we’ve received a claim.
"This is the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2024, following on from an incredible 2023 which saw six UK EuroMillions jackpots won, including a £111.7million win by an anonymous single ticket-holder in June.
“Our focus is now on supporting this latest lucky ticket-holder through the process and helping them start to enjoy their truly life-changing win.”
Splashing the cash
Richard and Debbie now plan to buy a new family home and a holiday to Portugal.
And, Debbie has already handed in her notice at her civil engineering job where she works as a Bidding & Estimating Support Assistant.
Meanwhile, Richard runs his own accountancy business but has now informed the company he won't be working beyond the end of this tax year.
Richard said: “Obviously I am not going to leave anyone in the lurch - my clients have been fantastic and loyal to me and I will of course do their payroll if they are stuck. They are being very understanding but I am looking to wind things up as soon as possible and finally take it easy.”
On their free time, Richard hopes to play more golf in the UK and abroad, while Debbie hopes for a bigger garden, a greenhouse and more land for their dog Monty to enjoy.
The perfect news while on holiday
Richard and Debbie were on a week-long holiday in Fuerteventura when they discovered that they had won the £61.7m EuroMillions jackpot.
Richard said he had always wanted to visit the island to watch windsurfers in action after competing in the sport as a teenager.
But when they found out about their massive win, the couple decided to quickly book a flight home to the UK the next day.
“This trip had always been on my bucket list as I loved windsurfing from a young age. I was very lucky to have been supported by my amazing parents in order to compete on the national circuit when I was a teen and I have always wanted to travel to the island and witness the surfing there with my own eyes.
"However, we just couldn't settle once the news of our win had been confirmed. We were now multi-millionaires!”
Couple's frantic rush after winning jackpot
Richard said poor signal meant he and his wife, Debbie, couldn't confirm the news of their win with the National Lottery and he turned to his family for help.
"I tried calling The National Lottery’s number but my mobile phone signal was poor and the call just kept dropping. So I WhatsApped the family chat group asking for one of our daughters to call us urgently. My youngest came back quickly and we asked her to log into our National Lottery account from the UK and double-check.
"She put in my details and then just kept repeating ’oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!’ It must be real, this was the official National Lottery website we were all looking at.”
When Richard and Debbie finally got through to the National Lottery, the employee told them: "So, I need to get this right…I can confirm you are the winners of the £61,708,321 EuroMillions jackpot prize.
"By this time me and Debs are going mental, jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, thumping the dashboard, the car must have been rocking," said Richard.
‘We thought we’d only won £2.60’
Richard reveled they originally thought they had won £2.60, but then received another email telling the pair to check their account.
“I thought it was odd and there must be a glitch in the system to get a duplicate email but I logged in again to my National Lottery account to check. We were totally stunned, it said we had won over £61M," said the winner.
Richard continued: “We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix up."
UK couple unveiled as winners of £61m EuroMillions jackpot
A lucky couple have been announced as the UK’s latest multi-million pound National Lottery winners - after scooping £61,708,231 in the EuroMillions jackpot.
Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne, Lancashire, took home the life-changing share in the draw on Tuesday, 30 January 2024.
The couple were enjoying a week-long holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, when they discovered the big win.
