Woman who won $187 million on lottery cut off family after they became ‘demanding and greedy’

A woman has said 'there will be no reconciliation' after she cut off contact with her family, claiming they demanded a share of her lottery winnings.

Gillian Bayford from the UK won the equivalent of a whopping $187.5 million on the lottery along with her husband at the time.

Gillian, from Dundee in Scotland, became a multi-millionaire overnight when she and husband at the time Adrian won the EuroMillions in August 2012.

But despite winning big on the lottery, the win soon started to have a negative impact on other aspects of Gillian's life.

This included separating from Adrian only 15 months after the pair won the enormous prize.

Gillian has since met someone else, but claims that her marriage was not the only relationship which suffered after her win on the lottery.

Her win also had a big negative impact on her relationship with her family.

So what went wrong?

Gillian and Adrian celebrate their win. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Gillian said that after she hit her jackpot she paid a whopping $880,000 to settle debts held by her family.

This included money owed by her father Ian McCulloch, who died in 2021, and her brother Colin.

The pair had started a series of failed business ventures, Gillian claims, and she says she paid the enormous sum to clear the debts.

Gillian said: “My dad and brother built up one company after another and then closed them down. I’ve bailed them out of every debt.”

She also bought a penthouse in eastern Scotland worth $350,000 for her parents, who had been living in a caravan at the time.

But even this was reportedly not enough, with her parents later imploring her to lend her brother a further $950k to start a new play centre business, according to the Mirror.

Gillian said her family relationships have suffered as a result. (ANDREW COWIE/AFP/GettyImages)

Colin would later stop talking to his sister, even marrying his girlfriend without inviting her to the wedding.

Speaking to The Sun in 2016 she said: "It's upsetting and raw. The money was supposed to make everybody happy. But it's made them demanding and greedy."

Gillian since revealed that she doesn't want to repair her relationship with her family, saying: "I wish them a happy life, but there will be no reconciliation now.”

For her part, Gillian's mum Brenda told the Mirror back in 2016: "I’d like to see the ­grandchildren but I couldn’t trust Gillian not to twist ­everything.

"Gillian says that we didn’t try and get in touch with them, but if I’d tried she wouldn’t have let me."

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