Woman lost all £1.8m she won in the lottery after just five years but insists she 'spent it wisely'
07.09.2023 - 11:59
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A lottery winner lost all her extra cash despite working full-time, but says she had a "great time".
Lara Griffiths was left in disbelief when her ex-husband Roger Griffiths told her he won £1.8 million in 2005. She said the whole experience was "shocking" but 18 years later, she is "sick of being painted as tragic".
Eight years after the win, Lara and Roger split apart. She says she has since been accused of being a "silly woman" who frittered all the cash away, but she says the opposite is true.
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She said: “It’s become an overriding narrative that the lotto ruined my life. People kept saying I was stupid, pumped full of plastic surgery and needed my kids taken away.
“But the fact is, I spent it wisely - and I had a great time.” After winning the cash Lara and Roger immediately bought economy class tickets to Dubai, where they spent 10 days.
They also invested in the following months, purchasing a £150k salon in which Lara worked, 30 secondhand cars, and roughly 15 designer bags. Lara, from Boston Spa, West Yorksshire, claims they also got a mortgage on a house - instead of buying it outright for £450k.
But she says having all that money was a strange feeling. She says she found the experience “shocking” - and she couldn’t differentiate between “good shock and bad shock”.
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Lara said: “Everyone always asks you what it’s like to win the lottery. But it’s not a tangible feeling - imagine being told you suddenly have two million in the bank.
“We went on holiday to Dubai and it was lovely, in the first instance. We didn’t fritter money away, though.
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