Someone could become the UK’s biggest ever lottery winner tonight after the EuroMillions jackpot reached £208,000,0000.
It follows Tuesday’s £199 million draw, which had no winner.
Several UK ticket holders have scooped staggering EuroMillions jackpots, with some, like Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester going public, while many choose to remain anonymous.
Here, we take a look at the UK’s 10 biggest wins since the competition begun in 2004.
1. Anonymous – £195,707,000
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As it stands, the biggest lottery win in the UK was in July 2022, when an anonymous ticket holder scooped £195,707,000.
2. Joe and Jess Thwaite – £184,262,899
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.
At the time, Joe was a communications sales engineer, and Jess ran a hairdressing salon with her sister.
Joe saw they’d won when he woke early the next morning. He said: ‘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!’
When the alarm finally rang, Joe turned to Jess and said: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’
3. Anonymous – £177,033,699
A single-ticket holder, who chose to remain anonymous, won the £177,033,699 jackpot for the draw on November 26 2024.
The winner became immediately wealthier than popstar Dua Lipa, who is worth an estimated £104 million, and Michael Buble, worth around £63 million.
4. Anonymous – £171,815,297.80
Another person who chose to remain anonymous scooped £171,815,297 in the September 23 2022 draw. At the time this was the country’s third biggest National Lottery win.
5. Anonymous – £170,221,000
The fifth biggest winner of the National Lottery to date scooped £170 million in 2019 after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw on October 8.
6. Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs, North Ayrshire, became the UK’s biggest lottery winners the time after winning £162,653,000 on July 12 2011.
Colin used £2.5 million of his fortune to invest in his beloved Patrick Thistle Football Club, which led to one of the stands at the stadium being named after him.
The former TV camera man later acquired a 55% shareholding in the club, which was to be passed into the hands of the local community upon his death.
The couple, who set up the Weir Charitable Trust in 2013 and donated £1 million to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, divorced in 2019. They had been married 38 years.
Colin died of sepsis and an acute kidney injury a few months later at the age of 71.
7. Adrian and Gillian Bayford – £148,656,000
Adrian and Gillian won £148,656,000 in a EuroMillions draw on August 10, 2012.
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.
Gillian now has a conviction for threatening her ex-boyfriend, domestic abuse charity worker Gavin Innes, who she pushed and shouted at in 2017.
She then married convicted fraudster Brian Deans, before ending their ending their relationship, claiming he asked for more and more money after blowing the monthly allowance she gave him on cars, watches and trips with friends.
Adrian, meanwhile, started a relationship with ex-horse groom Samantha Burbidge, a woman 16 years younger than him, in 2017.
He also dated waitress Lisa Kemp, but she dumped him after discovering saucy messages sent to his ex Marta Jarosz.
In 2019, Adrian said he ate 50 Cornish pasties delivered to his mansion each week to cope with his loneliness.
8. Anonymous, £123,458,008
One ticket holder got lucky with a Superdraw rollover jackpot of £123,458,008 on June 11 2019, and decided to remain anonymous.
9. Anonymous, £122,550,350
Another ticket holder scooped more than £122 million in April 2021, but didn’t go public.
10. Anonymous, £121,328,187
And the 10th biggest lottery winner in the UK won their fortune in April 2018, and chose to remain anonymous.
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