EuroMillions: Winners of £61million jackpot initially thought they'd won £2.60

A married couple from Lancashire have been named the winners of a £61million EuroMillions jackpot prize.

Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne, were announced as winners of the huge sum by the National Lottery on Wednesday lunchtime.

The couple were on a week-long holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, when the news of their success emerged.

But Mr Nuttall, a self-employed accountant, said when he checked his account online he saw a win of £2.60.

He said: “So I went through to Debs and I said we’ve won £2.60 on the lottery and she was like: ‘Woohoo, we’ll go and have a bacon butty or something with that.”‘

But he later realised the £2.60 was from a win in November and when he logged in again later that day, after another email, he saw a figure of £61,708,231.

Mr Nuttall described how they had jumped up in and down in their car seats when they realised they had won, after “desperately” driving around the Canary islands searching for mobile signal to check their numbers.

EuroMillions winners Richard and Debbie Nuttall (PA Media)

“We just couldn’t make sense of it,” Mr Nuttall told a press conference on Wednesday.

“My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix-up.”

Describing the couple’s emotions after they had spoken to the National Lottery and confirmed their win, he said: “By this time me and Debs are going mental…jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, thumping the dashboard…the car must have been rocking.”

The couple, who have three daughters and two granddaughters, could not claim the prize until they were back in the UK, so booked a flight home for the next day.

The lucky couple won a £61,708,231 share of the £123 million jackpot prize from the draw on January 30. The other winning ticket was bought by someone in Spain.

Their first purchases since the win have been new clubs for keen golfer Mr Nuttall, a £300 hairdryer and 1,200 thread-count cotton luxury bedding.

Mrs Nuttall said: “I don’t think it has sunk in properly yet. Obviously, it’s amazing, we’re very happy but we are still in that dazed period.”

While her husband is planning trips to his favourite golf courses and to watch Formula One, Mrs Nuttall said she was hoping to sit by a swimming pool with a cocktail and a book.

Mr and Mrs Nuttall plan to stop working and hope to go on more holidays (Anthony Devlin/Allwyn/PA Wire)

She has handed in her notice at her civil engineering job and Mr Nuttall has told clients he will be stopping work at the end of the tax year.

The couple will also support the charity BK’s Heroes which was set up in memory of Mrs Nuttall’s cousin Ben King, who died aged 27, which aims to raise awareness and funding for research into prevention and treatment of brain cancer and kidney disease.

Their win almost did not happen as they spent 16 years playing the Lotto with specific numbers seen by Mrs Nuttall in a dream, before deciding to play lucky dip on the EuroMillions.

Mr Nuttall said: “Somebody did ask me how much I’d put on the lottery over the years and I said probably about £62 million!”Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at the National Lottery, said earlier this month: “This is absolutely incredible news and we’re delighted that we’ve received a claim.

“This is the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2024, following on from an incredible 2023 which saw six UK EuroMillions jackpots won, including a £111.7 million win by an anonymous single ticket-holder in June.

“Our focus is now on supporting this latest lucky ticket-holder through the process and helping them start to enjoy their truly life-changing win.”

Register now for one of the Evening Standard’s newsletters. From a daily news briefing to Homes & Property insights, plus lifestyle, going out, offers and more. For the best stories in your inbox, click here.