We may all dream of winning a TV competition, but one woman has explained what it’s actually like to take home the grand prize.
After her lucky break on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Jenni Foster-Smith was the recipient of a brand-new car and three luxurious getaways, among a whole host of other prizes.
But not everything was plain sailing for the busy mum, who ended up desperately giving away prizes - including a year’s worth of pies.
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Appearing on the iconic ITV show felt like a dream come true for Jenni, who’d grown up watching the Geordie duo on Byker Grove.
“I never thought I would even get on the show, let alone take home the jackpot,” confessed the small bakery owner in an interview with Fabulous magazine.
Despite being nervous about applying and her sister having to complete the paperwork, Jenni soon found herself at the Saturday Night Takeaway studio.
Not only was she selected to take part in the ‘win the ads’ game from the audience, but she was also able to correctly answer seven questions and unlocked the various prizes on offer.
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It was then that the mum-of-one risked it all on a final question, bagging herself the jackpot which included a Croatian holiday, a brand-new car and a boiler.
Soon after, the prizes began to arrive at Jenni's home.
This included some of the, um, less glamorous items like heartburn medication and a year’s supply of Pukka pies.
“Admittedly nobody wants 250 pies,” she joked, revealing that she had initially been offered a delivery via a truck.
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Thankfully, the savvy mum soon stopped this and exchanged them for vouchers after realising how many pies she had to eat.
“At one stage we were averaging 2-3 pies a week which became a bit of a chore but I worked out I could just put the vouchers towards my weekly shop instead.
“They are delicious but nobody needs that many pies!”
The pies weren’t the only problem.
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The mum was given strict instructions about when she could take the holidays, meaning that she had to cut two days off her Croatian trip as she’d already had another booked.
Other luxury breaks also had to be cut, as she explained: “We ended up giving our weekend away in Edinburgh to my parents, although we did make it to Paris but had to pay for our own accommodation.”
The bakery owner also had to return her car and brand-new fridge, as she’d already purchased both before her big win.
She also bagged a Dyson bundle and a brand-new bed from Dreams.
However, there was a happy ending, with Jenni telling Fabulous: “In the end, I was able to use the £2,000 value at Curry’s to buy items for the local children’s hospice."
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The win had an even greater significance for the mum-of-one as she’d struggled to conceive in the month leading up to her 2017 appearance.
“We had been through a failed round of IVF at the time so we really hadn’t felt lucky but it just shows things can change. I never felt luckier,” she revealed, adding: “I still have it [the bed she won] and always tell my son to be careful when he’s doing a roly-poly on it not to break my Ant & Dec bed.”
Topics: Ant and Dec, Saturday Night Takeaway, TV and Film
Katherine Sidnell