The winners of Britain’s lottery winners have been revealed as a hairdresser and her sales engineer husband, who did not even wake her up to let her know they had scooped the life-changing £184million jackpot off a lucky dip.
Joe and Jess Thwaite, a couple from Gloucestershire in their 40s, won the whopping jackpot on Tuesday.
The couple had kept silent until now, shying away from publicity, but revealed they had scooped the huge sum at a hotel in Cheltenham this morning.
They have two primary school-age children, and Mr Thwaite has two children at university from a previous marriage.
Speaking to television presenter Dermot O’Leary, Joe, 49, described the moment she realised they had won the jackpot.
He admitted that he saw the winning numbers via the National Lottery app as his wife lay asleep and did not wake her – but instead started browsing for properties.
Mr Thwaite said he then began counting the digits, before he realised he had won the ‘life-changing’ sum.
He added: ‘I looked it up and saw we’d won. 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!’
Joe Thwaite, 49, and Jess Thwaite, 46, from Gloucestershire celebrate after winning the record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot of £184m
The couple revealed they were the winners at the Ellenborough Park Hotel, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, this morning
Television presenter Dermot O’Leary presented the couple with a giant cheque as they unveiled themselves
Jess, 49, said the inspiration behind their win is her late father – who always played before he passed away.
She added: ‘My dad played The National Lottery all his life and constantly dreamed of winning.
‘He would always ask us what we’d do when we won, how we’d spend it, who we’d treat. It was a regular conversation and I feel like he was preparing us.
‘Maybe that is why I seem so chilled, as I’ve kind of been ready to win for years.’
Joe, who is a communications sales engineer, has been married to Jess for 11 years.
Jess manages the business side of a hairdressing salon she runs with her sister.
Last Tuesday’s win makes the couple richer than Sir Tom Jones or Harry Kane.
Mrs Thwaite added: ‘The win gives us time to dream which we haven’t had before.
‘We’ve had one week to think about this and we now have time to share lots of experiences and go on adventures with our family and friends.’
Joe bought the ticket at around 4pm on the day of the draw via the National Lottery app.
The next morning Joe got up as usual at 5.15am to sort out the couple’s dogs.
The winners, from Gloucester, had only just moved into a new home months before their jackpot win
The couple pictured laughing as they revealed their lottery win at a hotel in Cheltenham on Thursday morning
Once the dogs were happy he checked his phone and saw the email from The National Lottery saying, ‘Good news, you’ve won a prize’.
Eventually the alarm rang and, as Jess struggled to turn it off, Joe told her: ‘I’ve got a secret, I’ve got something to tell you.’
Jess said her initial reaction when presented with the news was disbelief, thinking Joe had it wrong, the National Lottery app was wrong or that it was a joke.
But she eventually concluded that it was not worth getting too excited about as it probably was not true, before getting up to make a coffee and start their normal morning routine.
The couple called Camelot once The National Lottery Line opened at 8am and promptly had the life-changing win confirmed.
Despite being told they had just become the UK’s biggest-ever winners, the pair carried on as normal doing the school run and settling down to work from home.