’I gave family £20m... now we don’t speak’: £148m EuroMillions jackpot tore my family apart

EUROMILLIONS winner Gillian Bayford has told for the first time how scooping £148million made her life a misery.

Gillian, 43, split from hubby Adrian 15 months later and has lost contact with her parents and brother in a bitter rift.

She revealed she handed £20million to her family but they have not spoken to her for a year.


The mum of two threw cash at struggling dad Ian McCulloch, 71, mum Brenda, 66, and brother Colin.

But in her first in-depth interview since winning Britain’s second biggest lottery prize, Gillian claimed it changed them for the worst and that they are “embarrassed” by her.

She said: “It’s upsetting and raw. The money was supposed to make everybody happy. But it’s made them demanding and greedy.

“They’ve been given money and houses and cars but still wanted more.

“My dad has openly said he wants to control my business and take half my money.”

Gillian, who lived in Haverhill, Suffolk, when her numbers came up in 2012, said her parents were broke and living in a caravan at the time.

She said: “My dad and brother had debts of £700,000 on 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.”

Ian and Brenda now live in a £275,000 apartment in Carnoustie on Scotland’s east coast, where their daughter grew up, and drive an Audi S8.

Gillian said Ian had jetted to Canada, South Africa and Florida in the past year or so but refused to fly economy. And when her gran fell ill while he and Brenda were away, Gillian paid £25,000 to bring them home.

Colin, 41, has a £288,000 house, drives Audis with private plates and married his girlfriend without telling Gillian.

She said: “I can hold my head up because I know I’ve taken them out of a situation.

“They brought our name into disrespect in the village and we had people threatening to torch the family house.

“My dad and brother built up one company after another and then closed them down.

“I’ve bailed them out of every debt.”



Gillian said it took them just nine months to ask for more money for Colin.

She handed over another £800,000 so he could buy a playcentre business.

She said: “Dad said the money Colin was given wasn’t enough and that he was struggling.

“He wanted me to guarantee that I would help my brother for the rest of his life.

“I’d never see him struggle.”

But she said she was furious last week when she saw Colin boasting on Facebook that he had got rid of an Audi after just three months.

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

“They’re rubbing people’s noses in it by flashing their cash, which I think is downright nasty.”

She said they fell out with her because of a story in the paper which embarrassed her parents.

They have not spoken since her gran’s funeral last May.

She said: “They are disgusted when I get that kind of attention.

“They’ve disowned me because I embarrass them.

“But they’ve been more than happy to take my money.

“The most upsetting thing is that they won’t have anything to do with their two grandchildren.

“They won’t see them.”

She said she hopes the playcentre business, which her mum and dad are also involved in, works out, adding: “I won’t be bailing them out again.” Colin refused to comment. But Ian denied he was embarrassed by Gillian.

He said: “It’s complete nonsense.

“We have no issues at all with Gillian.

“This door has been open ever since my mother died but we’ve not seen her since that day.

“It’s all lies. We don’t want anything from Gillian.

“She’s given us too much.”

He said of the money: “We don’t need to keep going over history.

“We were going down, we were bankrupt.

“The people we owed money to wanted it back.

“If it wasn’t for Gillian we wouldn’t be sitting in this top house.

“We’d be down in the caravan park.

“We have many thanks for everything Gillian has done.

“But what she’s doing now we just don’t understand.”

And he insisted he did want to see her kids.

He said: “How do you think it feels never getting to see the grandchildren?

“How is that right?

“We can’t get through to her.”
                                               

Stressed love split

JUST 15 months after scooping the huge jackpot Gillian and hubby Adrian divorced — blaming the stress of their win.

Adrian, 45, is now engaged to ex-horse groom Samantha Burbidge, who is 16 years his junior.

She moved in to his £6million Grade II-listed country mansion after they met in a pub.

Adrian, who was running a secondhand record store at the time of his win, now owns Black Barn Records — a film and music memorabilia shop in Cambridge.

Gillian is engaged to car dealer Alan Warnock.

They met when she spent some of her windfall at his Audi garage in Dundee.

Gillian bought the Sugar and Spice cafe near Arbroath harbour in 2014.

However the business closed in April after just a year of trading, leaving 21 people out of work.

WINNING the lottery has led to misery rather than joy for some.

The most infamous case is King of the Chavs Michael Carroll, who blew his £9.7million win on cars, drugs, booze and hookers.

Carroll, from Norfolk, trashed his mansion and sold it in 2010. He was last heard of working in a biscuit factory.

Callie Rogers of Workington, Cumbria, was Britain’s youngest lotto winner at 16 — scooping £1.9million in 2003.

Ten years later she had frittered it away on drugs and alcohol and became so depressed she attempted suicide.


Roger and Lara Griffiths of Wetherby, West Yorks, netted £1.8million in 2005. Lara said it wrecked their marriage. Roger said he ended up with £7 in the bank.

Iorworth Hoare from Newcastle was dubbed the Lotto Rapist after he scooped £7.2million with a Lotto Extra ticket bought on day release from jail in 2004.

In a landmark ruling the High Court later ordered he pay his victim close to £100,000.