A week ago, the second biggest jackpot in the history of EuroMillions, the sum of 215,840,341 euros, fell. They are a British couple: Joe and Jess Thwaite from Gloucester, both in their forties. Joe is a sales engineer while Jess is the owner of his hair salon. Married for eleven years, they have two children who are currently in primary school. Joe was already the father of two other children from a previous marriage who are both studying at university.
In an interview with several British media, Jess explained that she started playing the lottery seven years ago when her father died, because he had been gambling all his life. The couple said they only play when a large amount is at stake, choosing different numbers each time. “Normally I don’t have much luck, so I usually let my wife buy the tickets,” Joe joked.
When he found out the very good news, his wife was still sleeping and her alarm clock was not to go off until 20 minutes later. Excited, he nevertheless left Jess to sleep and hastened to go to the largest real estate sales site in the United Kingdom. “For the first time, I was able to disable the price filters that I always use”, he joked. When he woke up, his wife refused to believe him, convinced that he had misread the numbers. At his request, he therefore called the national lottery. After confirmation, they both decided to go to work as a normal day.
Joe told the press that he plans to retire soon. With the money, he would like to renovate their house and the hair salon. “There is so much work. There is still a bucket in the hallway because it is raining inside. Electricity bills have also increased and with the Covid business is not so good”, explained the lucky winner. The couple also plans to buy a new car and especially to travel. Joe and Jess also confessed that they are not the most materialistic in the world and want to help the people who have supported them in the past. It is for this reason that they have decided to reveal their identity and not to remain anonymous. “With such secrecy, it wouldn’t have been possible to offer an incredible trip to someone, for example, without having to explain where exactly the money came from. We want to be able to be very open with the people that we like”they concluded.