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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Josie Clarke

The UK and Ireland’s 10 biggest EuroMillions wins

Tuesday’s jackpot of £208m was the largest prize the EuroMillions has ever seen - (Allwyn/PA)

A single ticketholder has become the biggest ever EuroMillions lottery winner in the UK and Ireland.

Tuesday’s jackpot of £208m was the largest prize the EuroMillions has ever seen, and was scooped up by a lucky player in Ireland.

The winning numbers from Tuesday’s draw, which had rolled over several times, were 13, 22, 23, 44 and 49, with lucky stars 3 and 5.

Players had to correctly choose all seven numbers to win the jackpot.

Here are the biggest lottery wins in the UK and Ireland to date – all from EuroMillions draws – and what some of the winners did with their fortunes.

1. Anonymous, £208,000,000

A single ticketholder from Ireland won the €250m EuroMillions jackpot, the Irish National Lottery said.

2. Anonymous, £195,707,000

A UK ticketholder scooped a EuroMillions jackpot of £195m on 19 July 2022.

3. Joe and Jess Thwaite, £184,262,899.10

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

Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucestershire, celebrate after winning the then record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184m (PA Archive)

At the time, Joe was a communications sales engineer, and Jess ran a hairdressing salon with her sister.

4. Anonymous, £177,033,699.20

A UK ticketholder became the third biggest National Lottery winner after receiving a £177m jackpot.

The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, came forward to claim the EuroMillions jackpot after the draw on 26 November 2024.

They became immediately wealthier than popstar Dua Lipa, who is worth an estimated £104m, and Michael Bublé, worth around £63m.

5. Anonymous, £171,815,297.80

A UK ticketholder scooped £171m in the 23 September 2022 draw – at the time the country’s third biggest National Lottery win.

6. Anonymous, £170,221,000

The fifth biggest winner of the National Lottery to date scooped £170m in 2019 after matching all the numbers in a Must Be Won draw on 8 October.

7. Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000

Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Ayrshire, kiss during a photocall after their life-changing £161m prize win (PA Archive)

Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, bagged their historic winnings on 12 July 2011, making them the biggest UK winners at the time.

Colin invested £2.5m in his beloved Partick Thistle FC, which led to one of the stands at the stadium being named after him.

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

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

8. Adrian and Gillian Bayford, £148,656,000

Adrian and Gillian, from Haverhill, Suffolk, won €190m in a EuroMillions draw on 10 August 2012, which came to just over £148m.

Adrian Bayford, 41, and wife Gillian, 40, from Haverhill, Suffolk, at a press conference after they won £148.6m

The couple bought a Grade II-listed estate in Cambridgeshire, complete with a cinema and a billiards room, but it was sold in 2021, some years after the pair divorced.

9. Anonymous, £123,458,008

The eighth biggest National Lottery winner won a Superdraw rollover jackpot on 11 June 2019, and decided not to go public with their success.

10. Anonymous, £122,550,350

After nine rollovers, one lucky ticketholder bagged more than £122m in April 2021.

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