Who are the 10 biggest UK lottery winners?

A married couple won a £61 million EuroMillions jackpot while celebrating their wedding anniversary in the sun last month.

Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne in Lancashire, “desperately drove” around the Canary Islands searching for a mobile signal to check they had one of the two winning tickets.

But they are not the biggest British winners of all time, with 15 UK players having won a jackpot of more than £100 million in the history of the National Lottery.

Here are the 10 biggest UK lottery winners – all from EuroMillions draws – and what some of them did with their fortunes.

– Anonymous, £195,707,000

A UK ticket-holder scooped the record EuroMillions jackpot of £195 million on July 19 2022 – the biggest National Lottery win of all time.

The holder will be able to buy 11 Boeing 747 jets, 23 Pisces-VI Submarines, Southampton Football Club or a townhouse in London’s Mayfair, complete with steam room and plunge pool, cinema room and fully equipped chef’s kitchen.

– Joe and Jess Thwaite, £184,262,899.10

Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, scooped a then record-breaking £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket for the draw on May 10 2022.

They are now worth more than footballers Harry Kane (£33 million) and Paul Pogba (£64 million) combined, and can buy four Caribbean islands, with a few million to spare, or the equivalent of 11 six-bedroom luxury properties in London’s affluent Hyde Park.

Joe, 49, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, 44, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two primary school-aged children.

– Anonymous, £171,815,297

The third big win of 2022 arrived a fortnight after September’s Superdraw, with the jackpot worth more than £171 million. The winner staked their claim within 48 hours of the draw.

– Anonymous, £170,221,000

The fourth biggest winner of the National Lottery to date scooped £170 million in October 2019, after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw.

– Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000

Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs, North Ayrshire, bagged their historic winnings in July 2011, making them the biggest UK winners at the time.

Colin used £2.5 million of his fortune to invest in his beloved Partick Thistle Football Club, which led to one of the stands at the stadium being named after him.

He later acquired a 55% shareholding in the club, which was to be passed into the hands of the local community upon his death. He died in December 2019, aged 71.

The couple also set up the Weir Charitable Trust in 2013 and donated £1 million to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. They divorced in the same year as Colin’s death.

– Adrian and Gillian Bayford, £148,656,000

Adrian and Gillian won 190 million euros in a EuroMillions draw in August 2012, which came to just over £148 million. The couple bought a Grade II listed estate in Cambridgeshire, complete with cinema and billiards room, but it was sold in 2021, some years after the pair divorced, as reported by The Mirror.

– Anonymous, £123,458,008

The sixth biggest National Lottery winner won a Superdraw rollover jackpot in June 2019, and decided not to go public with their success.

– Anonymous, £122,550,350

After nine rollovers, one lucky anonymous ticket-holder bagged more than £122 million in April 2021.

– Anonymous, £121,328,187

Another of the UK’s top 10 lottery winners found their fortune through a Superdraw jackpot rollover, this time in April 2018.

– Frances and Patrick Connolly, £114,969,775

Former social worker and teacher Frances set up two charitable foundations after she and her husband won almost £115 million on New Year’s Day 2019. She estimates that she has already given away £60 million to charitable causes, as well as friends and family.

She considers helping others to be an addiction, saying: “It gives you a buzz and it’s addictive. I’m addicted to it now.”