What would you do if you won a large lottery jackpot? Would you buy a new house or apartment? Would you move to a new city? Most people would first pay off their consumer debt and then buy luxury items like a new car or even a boat. But for one EuroMillions winner she wants to warn people that winning the lottery is not all it is cracked up to be after she took home more than a million pounds after winning a jackpot at the age of just seventeen.
Jane Park is the youngest EuroMillions winner to open up about the horrible fate she experienced after becoming an overnight millionaire. She explained that winning the lottery did not bring her happiness and ended up being a curse so bad that she would not “wish it on anyone.”
Ten years after her EuroMillions jackpot, Jane Park, 27, appeared on the talk show featuring Dr. Phil to explain the downsides of winning the lottery when she was an inexperienced teenager. She won one million pounds in 2013.
Jane explains to Dr. Phil in the episode entitled “The Curse of the Lottery” that her life was upended after winning so much money. The Edinburgh native appeared on Dr. Phil as the MegaMillions jackpot in the United States soared past one billion dollars in a jackpot so large that it would change a person’s life forever.
Jane told Dr. Phil that she had to deal with stalkers, death threats, and negative media attention after winning the EuroMillions jackpot. She explained to the talk show host that she was simply too young to deal with these challenging things and that the lottery winning simply “ruined” her life as she knew it.
After running home with her winning lottery ticket, like in a scene out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Jane was “encouraged” to go public with her lottery victory because it was “unheard” of for a young teenager to win so much money in the lottery.
Dr. Phil was interested in how Jane dealt with the lottery jackpot at such a young age because she had no experience dealing with a lot of money and could do everything wrong in the process of trying to figure out how to make her life better with the newfound wealth she had just acquired.
Jane said: “I splashed out a bit because I never knew the value of a million pounds. I’d never seen that kind of money. I never knew anyone with that kind of money, so I kind of splashed out on stuff that I’ve always wanted.”
Dr. Phil explained, “You had stalkers, death threats, people hiding in the bushes and commenting on everything you were doing, which when you’re 17, that kind of gets under your skin.”
Jane spent thousands of dollars of her winnings on cosmetic surgery, including breast augmentation and a Brazilian butt lift.
“I had a procedure done in a different country, and when I flew back, I ended up with sepsis.”
She concluded, “I wish I’d never won it. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”