A married couple who scooped up Britain's biggest EuroMillions jackpot says they've already been looking at £7million homes online.
Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won the life-changing £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket in the draw on May 10.
The couple today revealed plans to share their win with extended family, with even Mr Thwaite’s ex-wife being “over the moon” for them.
Mrs Thwaite, 44, said they have been looking at what homes they can afford now but say it's not about the number of bedrooms.
She said: "It’s not the number of bedrooms, it was just the top amount you could spend.
"I don’t know, I think I got up to about £7 million and then I just thought I was being stupid. I thought ‘what are you doing?'”
“It was just for fun because we thought it wasn’t real. He just played for a minute and just dreamed for a minute."
Her husband added: “Yes, it was just a dream, like ‘imagine this’.”
A quick look on Rightmove shows the couple can afford a lovely seven-bedroom detached house on six acres of land for just over £7million right in their area of Gloucester.
Another property on sale for about £7million in Gloucester shows a five-bedroom farmhouse that has five additional cottages on site.
The couple may not have plans to move anytime soon as they had only recently bought a new house.
Asked if their new house was still their “forever home” now they had landed the jackpot, Mrs Thwaite said: “We don’t know. I don’t know.
“It was our dream. It was our absolute dream to have the ponies at home.”
Mr Thwaite added: “We could do the house up how we wanted it and make the couple of changes that we want to put our stamp on the place.”
“But I think we’ve got some time and a bit more room to dream,” Mrs Thwaite said.
Mr Thwaite, a communications sales engineer, and Mrs Thwaite, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two primary school-aged children.
Mr Thwaite, 49, has two university-aged children from a previous marriage.
Mr Thwaite said he had already handed his notice in at work, and despite not being “a great car person”, said he wants to upgrade his small Hyundai to his dream car – a Skoda Superb estate.
The jackpot record was previously held by an anonymous ticket-holder who banked £170 million in October 2019.
The couple's good luck was the second EuroMillions jackpot won in the UK this year with a £109million prize from a draw in February.
In a short statement released after the couple went public with their win, Mrs Thwaite’s hairdressing salon, Blow Hair in Tewkesbury, said they wished them a “massive congratulations” and they were “over the moon for them”.
Speaking about what their children want to spend money on, Mrs Thwaite answered: “When we told our youngest two children, ‘if you could have anything in the world now that we have this money, what would you want?’, both of them said a holiday.
“We don’t go on holiday, they have ponies and everything goes into them.
“So my youngest said she wants to go to Hawaii. We have no idea why Hawaii, but we think it’s YouTube.
“She’s been talking about Hawaii for two years – and when we said she could go to Hawaii she was just jumping up and down with joy.
“Our eldest wants to go to America and do a ranch drive on a pony.
“She is obsessed with her pony – and now we can invite the rest of our family to do those with us – that’s the most important thing for us.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Mrs Thwaite said even though it is “wonderful and exciting” it is also “a massive relief for everybody that’s been struggling with all their bills and all their things for all this time”.
She said: “We’re like every normal family that has that thing so it’s just a huge relief as well.”
