21 February 2024 , 12:16
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The winners of a life-changing £61million National Lottery EuroMillions jackpot have been revealed today.
At an event in the Mitton, Lancashire, the couple who won the £61,708,231 jackpot from the draw on January 30 were revealed.
Remarkably, they didn't even win the full jackpot and only won a share of the £123million with the other winning ticket having been bought in Spain. Speaking from the Mitton Hall Hotel in Clitheroe, they revealed their story, of how they realised they had won, and what they intend to spend the money on.
Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne in Lancashire, ended up desperately driving around the Canary island searching for a decent mobile signal so they could confirm they had one of the two winning tickets. This came as they learned the news of their win whilst celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in Fuerteventura.
But at first the couple thought they'd won just £2.60, and continued going about their day until they eventually realised they'd landed the life-changing amount.
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Richard said: "It was the second day of our holiday and I had got up early to finish off a bit of work. I noticed the email from The National Lottery stating that there was ‘exciting news about your ticket’. So I checked my National Lottery account and saw the balance had gone up and we’d won £2.60. Fair enough. I shut my laptop, had breakfast and then we set off for the day, driving around the island. We enjoyed the sea views, blue skies and windsurfers before heading back.
EuroMillions winners Richard and Debbie Nuttall"It was early afternoon when we spotted another email saying we should check our 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!”
The newly minted millionaire continued: "We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix up. I know it sounds crazy but we couldn’t think straight! 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.
The couple had been celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary when they learned they'd won (Anthony Devlin)"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."
The couple tried to frantically ring up the National Lottery but the calls kept dropping due to poor signal in the hotel. Unable to wait around, they grabbed the keys to their rental car and raced around the island to find a stronger signal. Richard joked they must've "looked a right sight" with Debbie holding her phone as high as she could, checking the signal bars as they drove. "She started shouting 'stop here, stop here!' and I pulled over on a verge," Richard said.
But even then it wasn't plain sailing to collect their winnings. As they were answering the security questions, someone started tapping on the window. They tried to get him to leave, politely, but he refused and kept on tapping. This, they learned, was because he wanted to park his bus in their spot on the verge.
The Lancs couple split the £123million win with another ticket in Spain (Anthony Devlin)Would you go public if you won the lottery? Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
Eventually however, they were able to get it confirmed that they'd won the eye-watering sum of money. Richard said: “Well, 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 ... it was the whole Delboy and Rodney scene when they finally became millionaires outside Sotheby's!"
The couple decided to fly back home, despite being just a few days into their week long holiday, and once back began planning how they may spend their many millions. Top of their list is a new family home, still in their beloved Lancashire, and also a Portugal holiday home - with more gardening on the cards for Debbie, and golf for Richard.
Alongside that, both are looking forward to retirement, with Debbie having already handed in her notice - and accountant Richard only working to the end of the tax year before winding everything up.
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Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at the National Lottery, said earlier this month: "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 £111.7 million 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."