Lara Griffiths tells of the “absolute hell” she endured after her lottery win turned sour. She and her then-husband Roger were living a modest life in West Yorkshire when they scooped a cool £1.8million.
But their dream quickly turned into a nightmare, with a devastating house fire and a bitter divorce that saw them blow through their fortune. “There wasn’t really any common sense involved at the time. I don’t even recall a conversation with Roger about how to manage the money – I just remember there was an awful lot of panic and absurdity,” says Lara, now 54.
The couple, who tied the knot in 1997 after meeting at university, hit the jackpot in October 2005. At the time, Lara was teaching performing arts and Roger was working as an IT manager, while their daughter Ruby was just a toddler.
They made history as the first online winners, receiving an email in the dead of night hinting at “exciting news” about their ticket. “It was about 2.30am and Roger started calling me upstairs to look at the computer screen, which said our balance was £1.8million,” Lara remembers.
Initially thinking it was a hoax, the couple’s win was confirmed by Camelot, the National Lottery operator back then, and they decided to go public with their story, reports the Mirror.
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They were living the high life, splashing cash like there was no tomorrow. They ditched their day jobs, jetted off to glam spots like Dubai, Florida and France, snapped up a beauty salon for a cool £150,000, and settled into a swanky £450,000 barn conversion.
But their luck took a nosedive. In December 2010, disaster struck – their posh pad went up in smoke.
“We had a catastrophic house fire,” Lara recounts. “The whole place burned down while I was at work, but Roger, the two children and the dogs were inside. It was a nightmare – we lost all of our possessions too. We didn’t even have clothes to wear. Our home burned for three days.”
After the blaze, the family bunked in hotels and with Lara’s mum for eight long months while their digs were patched up.
The cause of the blaze, which kicked off in the utility room, remains a mystery, despite an investigation. “Nobody was injured, but my daughter Kitty still has some PTSD issues from the fire,” Lara shares.
They reclaimed their home in July 2011, but Lara’s woes weren’t over – her marriage to Roger crumbled just months later. She describes the next two years as “absolute hell”, juggling motherhood and heartbreak.
By the time the divorce papers were signed in December 2013, they were skint.
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“I had to sell the house, sell my business and then sell everything that I owned,” she confesses. “It was an absolute disaster. It really was awful. I’ve got Crohn’s disease – I was about 6st at that point. But I was just trying to keep the children content and not lose my mind.”
With no other options left, Lara had to depend on her mum for financial support for a whole year.
She still shares her home with her mother and her daughters Ruby, 20, and Kitty, 17. In the face of all her struggles after hitting the jackpot, Lara remains optimistic, “I love my life now. OK, I’ve been through some really difficult moments, but I don’t regret winning. I regret not having the money any more, but I plan to make it back somehow.”