Woman who lost entire £1.8m lottery jackpot insists 'she spent it wisely'

Winning the lottery is on a lot of people’s wish list, but how long is a million supposed to last? Apparently longer than ten years, according to some.

But when you’re ensuring a great life for your family, time doesn’t mean much.

This is what Lara Griffiths thinks after deciding to dispel rumours that she was ‘tragic’ after spending all of her lottery winnings.

Claiming that she had a ‘great time’ after winning the lotto with her then-husband, Roger Griffiths, she’s setting the record straight about what she actually spent the £1.8 million on, and it wasn’t frivolous.

When Roger told Lara that he had won the amazing amount of cash back in 2005, she found it ‘shocking’ to come into such a large amount of money.

But despite having all these newfound riches, she still worked full-time and splashed out on family orientated luxuries instead.

Though these luxuries would only last for 8 years as in 2013, all the money was gone and so was her marriage to Roger.

But Lara is sick of the narrative that’s being pained of her since spending the lottery winnings.

SWNS

She said she’s ‘sick of being painted as tragic’ and that she has been accused of being a ‘silly woman’ who splashed her cashed away.

Lara, however, claims that she spent her money ‘wisely’.

She said: “It’s become an overriding narrative that the lotto ruined my life. People kept saying I was stupid, pumped full of plastic surgery and needed my kids taken away.

“But the fact is, I spent it wisely - and I had a great time.”

The items the couple decided to buy with their winnings included things like economy class tickets to Dubai, investing in a salon for £150k, 30 second hand cars and around 15 designer bags.

Though the salon was an expensive purchase, it’s where Lara ended up working which makes it a stable place of employment - though she didn’t even pay herself a salary.

Though as a former teacher, she soon felt ‘bored’ of working in a salon as her passion was alwats in teaching.

Hermann Traub / Pixabay

The West Yorkshire pair also got a mortgage on a home instead on buying it outright and continued living their lives through the shock of coming into sudden wealth.

Lara said: “Everyone always asks you what it’s like to win the lottery. But it’s not a tangible feeling - imagine being told you suddenly have two million in the bank.

“We went on holiday to Dubai and it was lovely, in the first instance. We didn’t fritter money away, though. We flew economy class, the cars were secondhand and we got mortgages on all the houses.”

But it wasn’t only Lara who was throwing away cash as she claims that Roger also threw 'a lot of money' into a music career, which amounted to £25k.

So, it’s no surprise that by 2013, the money had dried out and the pair decided to end their marriage.

Regardless of having spent all the cash, she provided for her children and maintains that she made sure her children had ‘a nice life’ and that the lotto ‘did not ruin my life’.