Man 'Deserts Wife After Winning Lottery' But She Claims Half Of Winning Are Hers

A Canadian couple have described how a winning lotto ticket ended their marriage. Denise Robertson and Maurice Thibeault's split began with the $6.1m (£3.6 million) he won and ended up in court.

"Together we dreamed about winning the lotto," Denise from Chatham, Ontario said in a sworn affidavit obtained by CBC .

"We both love muscle cars, we would each buy one and buy a large property in the country and build a large shop to work on our cars."

Yet, just four days after Maurice had secretly won in excess of $6 million he had packed his bags, taken his passport and left their home. The couple had at that point been living together for over two years.

"When I look back, I recall that he did approximately 15 loads of laundry of all his clothes the night prior...as if he was preparing to pack up and leave," Denise wrote in the affidavit.

Maurice had openly denied having the winning lottery ticket after Denise told him that he should check his numbers. And now Denise has filed a court injunction to prevent her husband collecting his winnings, claiming that half of the money is rightfully hers.

"I am greatly saddened and disappointed by what has happened here," Ms Robertson said in a statement from her legal firm, Colautti Landry Pickard.

"This could have been a very happy and exciting time for us, a couple, to do things we could only dream of doing."

Canadian Lotto. Credit: ONTARIO LOTTERY AND GAMING CORPORATION

All prizes of $10,000 or more are subjected to a review process. This includes a in-person interview where a claims investigator determines ownership of the ticket.

"If, for any reason, our prize claim review team cannot confidently determine the ownership of the ticket from the answers to the questions from the interview, then the claim is sent to OLG general investigations for further review," wrote OLG's senior manager of media relations Tony Bitonti in an email to CBC News.

"This further review can include interviewing other individuals with relevant information surrounding the prize claim," he wrote.

Bitonti said OLG can't provide a timeline for when the prize claiming process will be completed, but that once a winner is determined their photo will be released "as we do with all big lottery winners."

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: World News, Lotto

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday