Couple who live in £600,000 Cotswolds home become Britain’s biggest-EVER EuroMillions winners
‘Our current life isn’t horrendous!’: Couple who live in £600,000 Cotswolds home with ponies and chickens become Britain’s biggest-EVER EuroMillions winners with £184m jackpot – as they say they went public because they ‘couldn’t make others keep secret’
Joe and Jess Thwaite have been unveiled as winners of the huge jackpot prize at hotel in CheltenhamJoe, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, who runs a hairdressing salon, have been married for 11 yearsMr Thwaite revealed his wife was asleep when he realised they had won and she initially did not believe himCouple currently live in a £600,000 house in the Cotswolds, but say their priority is ‘DIY jobs’ around home
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
A couple who live in a £600,000 Cotswolds home with ponies and chickens have become Britain’s biggest-ever EuroMillions winners after landing a £184million jackpot – as they say they went public because they ‘couldn’t make others keep the secret’.
Joe and Jess Thwaite, a couple from Gloucestershire in their 40s, won the record-breaking £184,262,899 jackpot on Tuesday.
The couple, who have been married for 11 years, said they wanted to go public at hotel in Cheltenham this morning as they did not want to put the ‘burden’ of keeping the secret on others.
They have two eight-year-old twins together, while Mr Thwaite has two children currently at university from a previous marriage.
Only months ago the couple purchased their new £600,000 home, but said today that their priority is ‘DIY’ jobs around their property, but admitted their two children have ‘always talked about going to Hawaii’.
The house features four bedrooms, a kitchen and breakfast room and lounge area fitted with a fireplace with oak beam mantle and a log burning stove that leads to the garden
At a press conference with television presenter Dermot O’Leary this morning, the couple said their financial situation is ‘not horrendous’, but the cost of living crisis has ‘affected our lives’, adding that they own a lot of animals such as ponies, geckos, chickens and dogs.
Jess said: ‘We have too many things, we’re too busy. We just want to create that kind of lifestyle for our children.
‘We’re right at the bottom because we’ve pushed everything to get this house, and to have our ponies at home and that’s been our dream.’
She added: ‘I’m not saying that it’s horrendous, we love our life, this is what we’ve chosen.’
Joe, 49, admitted that he saw the winning numbers via the National Lottery app as his wife lay asleep and did not wake her – but instead started browsing for properties.
He added: ‘I looked it up and saw we’d won. I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go back to sleep.
‘I didn’t want to wake Jess up so I just laid there for what seemed like forever. I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!’
Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184m
The couple bought a new house in Gloucester just months before they were revealed as winners of the huge jackpot today
The couple revealed they were the winners at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, this morning
Television presenter Dermot O’Leary presented the couple with a giant cheque as they unveiled themselves
Mr and Mrs Thwaite celebrate by popping a bottle of champagne after revealing themselves as the winners of the grand prize this morning
The couple share a kiss as they pose with a cheque confirming their jackpot win of £184,262,899 at Ellenborough Park Hotel
Joe (left) admitted that he saw the winning numbers via the National Lottery app as his wife lay asleep and did not want to wake her
The Blow Hair and Beauty salon. Jess manages the business side of the hairdressing salon with her sister in Tewkesbury
Jess also revealed how her mother believed she was about to inform her she was pregnant when they met up in a car park to inform her of the lottery win.
But she instead told her mother: ‘It’s better than being pregnant!’
Jess, 44, added: ‘She just literally screamed in the car park and burst into tears because even though it’s wonderful and exciting. It’s also a massive relief for everybody that’s been struggling with all their bills and all their things for all this time.’
The couple said they wanted to go public and they did not want to put the ‘burden’ of keeping the secret on others.
Mr Thwaite added that it would be impossible to take someone on an ‘amazing holiday’ without disclosing where they got the money from.
The jackpot record was previously held by an anonymous ticket-holder who banked £170 million in October 2019.
The new record-breakers mark the second EuroMillions jackpot won in the UK this year, with the £109 million jackpot from the draw on February 4 claimed a few days later.
Jess said the inspiration behind their win is her late father – who always played before he passed away.
She added: ‘My dad played the Lottery when we were growing up and he played the same numbers every single week.
‘He died about seven years ago and kind of Joe took on the baton as the one who did the Lottery for our family.
‘So he started off using those numbers, but he’d forget them or get them wrong or something, so we then went to Lucky Dip, so that it was luck.
‘But yeah it’s unbelievable because that’s what my dad dreamed of all his life, and used to say to us frequently “Imagine if you won the Lottery, think about if you won the Lottery”.’
Joe, who is a communications sales engineer, while Jess manages the business side of a hairdressing salon she runs with her sister.
Last Tuesday’s win makes the couple richer than Sir Tom Jones or Harry Kane.
Mrs Thwaite added: ‘The win gives us time to dream which we haven’t had before.
‘We’ve had one week to think about this and we now have time to share lots of experiences and go on adventures with our family and friends.’
Askes how they celebrated the win, she continued: ‘We’ve had a family meal, we went and had a family meal so we could share with our family.
‘To tell the truth, we bought bedroom furniture. We bought a chest of drawers and a wardrobe. Other than that we haven’t done anything.’
Joe bought the ticket at around 4pm on the day of the draw via the National Lottery app.
The next morning Joe got up as usual at 5.15am to sort out the couple’s dogs.
The winners, from Gloucester, had only just moved into a new home months before their jackpot win
The couple pictured laughing as they revealed their lottery win at a hotel in Cheltenham on Thursday morning
The couple have said one of the first things they want to do with the jackpot is DIY jobs around their new home in Gloucester (pictured)
Mrs Thwaite says there is ‘so much work to do’ and they currently have a ‘bucket in the hallway that collects the rain every time it rains’
Mr and Mrs Thwaite hold hands as they walk out of the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, having decided to reveal themselves as the jackpot winners
Once the dogs were happy he checked his phone and saw the email from The National Lottery saying: ‘Good news, you’ve won a prize.’
Eventually the alarm rang and, as Jess struggled to turn it off, Joe told her: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’
Jess said her initial reaction when presented with the news was disbelief, thinking Joe had it wrong, the National Lottery app was wrong or that it was a joke.
But she eventually concluded that it was not worth getting too excited about as it probably was not true, before getting up to make a coffee and start their normal morning routine.
The couple called Camelot once The National Lottery Line opened at 8am and promptly had the life-changing win confirmed.
Despite being told they had just become the UK’s biggest-ever winners, the pair carried on as normal doing the school run and settling down to work from home.
On the cost of living crisis, Joe Thwaite said they bought the house when the economy was better so they had been struggling, adding: ‘This is huge for us.’
The couple gave a press conference with television presenter Dermot O’Leary at a hotel in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire earlier today
The couple told reporters today that they wanted to go public and they did not want to put the ‘burden’ of keeping the secret on others
They have two eight-year-old twins together, while Mr Thwaite has two children currently at university from a previous marriage
The couple were asked about whether they plan to help causes or charities close to their heart.
Jess Thwaite said: ‘Do you know what, I think that’s an area we will get to but we’re one week in.
‘It’s blown our mind just getting to this point, and you know, we’re not there yet, but we’re going to definitely take some advice and talk to people about those things.”
Joe said: ‘I still keep thinking I’m going to, like, fall out of bed and it’s all going to be a dream.’
His wife also told of how she had been ‘really worried about going public’, said it will help them be ‘honest’ to the people they love.
She said this is ‘just because I want to protect the people I love’.
‘But I feel this is the way that we can be honest, the more we can enjoy it with them all, and going to allow us to give them loads to them’, Mrs Thwaite added.
And on whether they’re worried about scammers or people coming forward to ask for money, Mrs Thwaite said: ‘I haven’t even thought of anything like that. To be honest we’re a week in, we’re so overwhelmed by other stuff.’
