Beauty
EuroMillions Youngest Winner Reveals Why She ‘Wishes She Hadn’t Won Lottery’
“I think there is, like it’s a very dark, twisted fairy tale.”
It seems to be more often than not you hear stories of people who wished they’d never won the lottery if they lived long enough to talk about it. Because you’ve at least heard a story or two about how those who won it ended up had their life ended in such a way that wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t won. Jane Park, the youngest lotto winner knew she was lucky enough to be alive to tell the story.
Back in 2013, Jane Park was only 17 when she pulled the lucky number and hit the £1 million jackpot.
Based in Edinburgh, Jane has been visiting the US and was invited for an episode on “The Curse of the Lottery” to share her life experience after winning it. The 27-year-old who has her own OF account now shares that it wasn’t easy, especially because she went public about it.
“You had stalkers, death threats…” said psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw.
“I wish I’d never won it, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. At 17, you aren’t even a proper adult, you know what I mean, I was such a young naive 17-year-old as well.”
To boot it up, EuroMillions was the one that “encouraged” her to go public because it never happened to a 17-year-old. She shared, “You can be anonymous, but you are encouraged to go public – they prefer that especially when the case is a bit different.”
“So because I was 17 they were like ‘oh this is kind of unheard of, you should tell people’.”
Jane also appeared along with experts in the lottery who talk about the odd chances and psychological reasonings behind why people take part in it. Jane shared that her biggest regret was being public about her win.
“I don’t regret any of the money that I’ve spent. My only regret would be going so public.”
And because of her, the lottery’s age limit has gone up from 16 to 18, which is the same as the gambling age limit.
“In the UK, it was 18 to gamble and 16 to play the lottery. You couldn’t put a pound in a machine or couldn’t go in the shop and buy cigarettes or alcohol, and you couldn’t go into a casino, but you could play the lottery.”
“I was basically wanting them to listen, like me calling them up and saying ‘you should raise the age’ they were never going to listen and that is why I went massive with it,” she continued.
“Since then, that story went very big and they have raised the age to 18 and I feel like I’ve made a massive impact on that.”
“I think there is, like it’s a very dark, twisted fairy tale and I think no one actually warns you of it – especially younger people. I was 17,” she recalls of the time when she’d just won it.
“I have not even spent all of the money and they seem to think they know more about my life. It’s hard because when I was younger I read the comments and it affected me and these people have never met me and they’ve probably never even seen me.”
While she’d regretted her 17-year-old publicization, she’s now out in the open talking about the things she’s suffered for it, including appearing in BBC’s “Teenage Millionaire: The Year I Won The Lottery.”
She’s spent a total of £50,000 on cosmetic work, which was but a fraction of what she won. Unfortunately, she suffered from sepsis due to a botched bum lift surgery in 2017 in Turkey that almost took her life. But that doesn’t shy her away from attempting for more.
