I won a £148 million jackpot and gave my family £20 million… they stopped talking to me

A EUROMILLIONS winner has told how winning a £148million jackpot ruined her life.

Gillian Bayford raised the enormous amount together with her then husband Adrian Bayford in 2012, but things quickly turned sour.

In a tragic twist, the couple split just 15 months after they were announced as winners.

And her relationship with her family soon followed, as despite being given £20, they stopped talking to her.

She said her father tried to take control of the money she won and repeatedly tried to claim a stake in her company.

In 2016, she told The Sun: “It’s disturbing and raw. The money was supposed to make everyone happy. But it has made them demanding and greedy.

“They (my family) have lost touch with where they come from.”

Mrs Bayford, who lived in Haverhill, Suffolk, at the time of the victory, said she immediately helped her father and brother by paying off their £700,000 debts, which had accumulated after a series of failed business ventures.

She then gave her father and mother Brenda, aged 66 – who were living in a caravan at the time – more money so they could buy a flat in Carnoustie on the east coast of Scotland.

But Mrs Bayford said her parents did not ask her to give Colin any more money until nine months later.

She agreed and gave him £800,000 for a new play center business, but she says he stopped talking to her after that and even married in secret.

Gillian, who lived in Haverhill, Suffolk when she won the jackpot, said her parents were broke and living in a caravan at the time.

She said: “My father and brother were £700,000 in debt the day we won.

“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 else.”

Brother Colin has a £288,000 house, drives Audis with private number plates and married his girlfriend without telling Gillian.

She said: “I can hold my head up high because I know I got them out of a situation.

“They brought our name into disrespect in the village and we had people threatening to burn down the family home.

“My father and brother built and then closed one business after another.

“I have freed them from all guilt.”

Gillian, who now lives in Dundee, said: “They have lost touch with where they come from.

“They rub people’s noses by showing their money, which I find downright disgusting.”

She said they got into a fight with her over a story in the newspaper that embarrassed her parents.