A British couple has claimed a record €190 million prize in the EuroMillions lottery.
The winner of Britain’s second biggest lottery jackpot said yesterday he joked to his wife that he had not bought any tickets.
And when music shop owner Adrian Bayford tried to tell health-care assistant Gillian that they had actually scooped €190 million (£148.6 million), she told him to be quiet as she was trying to get their children to sleep.
Mr Bayford, 41, said: “I had been watching the film The Bank Job on TV while Gillian was out with friends.
“When she got back, we decided to turn over and catch up on the news. Scrolling along the bottom of the screen was the news that one person had won EuroMillions but Gillian confessed that she hadn’t had time to get a ticket.
“As a joke, I also said neither had I, when in fact I had five lines upstairs waiting to be checked.
“By now both of our children had woken up so while Gillian was trying to settle them back to sleep, I went to check the numbers on my phone.
“Gradually, the numbers seemed to match up with those on my ticket and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I rushed back and turned on the main light, at which point Gillian went ballistic.
“The kids really were awake by now. I was trying to tell her we had won and she was telling me to keep the noise down.”
The lucky couple, from Haverhill, Suffolk, who have a daughter aged six and a four-year-old son, scooped the 14-rollover jackpot in Friday’s EuroMillions draw with the winning numbers 50, 21, 17, 48 and 11, and the Lucky Star numbers 09 and 10.
The prize is just behind the €204 million landed by Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs, North Ayrshire, in July last year.
Mr Bayford, who co-owns a music store in Haverhill, and Gillian, a children’s ward health-care assistant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, called family members to share the good news, having given up on getting the children back to bed.
Mrs Bayford, 40, said: “Everyone was very surprised to hear from us so late at night and thought we were joking at first.”
The couple, who have been married for eight years, spent the rest of the night on the internet choosing how to spend the money.
They are still deciding what to do next, although Mrs Bayford said she would be leaving her job in ward D2, where she has worked shifts for the past three years.
Mrs Bayford said: “Neither of us can quite comprehend just how much £148 million is.
“We have always worked and saved up for holidays, or things that we need.”