A lottery winner has revealed what it’s really like to scoop millions at a young age.
Jayden Clark, a 22-year-old from Adelaide, Southern Australia, was told by his mum that she had a ‘huge surprise’ for him one day after school around a decade ago.
Jayden and his two siblings were ‘excited,’ and expecting their mum to tell them they were having another sibling.
When he and his siblings returned to their home, their parents revealed a ‘gigantic’ cheque – they had won the lottery jackpot.
Jayden said in a TikTok: ‘I remember not thinking much of it other than just the excitement my parents had.
‘At that age I had no understanding of money and how much that was going to change our life.
‘I remember we took two weeks off school to plan how we were going to do life – we didn’t know anyone who had any money so we had to figure it all out ourselves.’
Overnight, the family ‘went from being pretty decently poor to multi-millionaires’.
But some 10 years later, Jayden has revealed he felt guilty and ‘like an outcast’ in the years following his family’s miraculous lottery win.
He said: ‘It had a big impact on us all, especially us kids.
‘You have this weird mentality of work and value of money. Winning the lottery makes it hard to feel like a normal person.
‘For a long time I wanted to share my story, but then I would just feel embarrassed by it.
‘Very often we would feel out of place and like we’re not fitting in anywhere – that’s the truth.
‘At home I felt like an outcast, I felt guilty for having the money.’
The 22-year-old says it took a move to Los Angeles to start feeling ‘normal again.’
He added: ‘Not until I came to LA did I feel like I belonged and was normal, because there’s so many crazy people here with crazy lives.’
Around a decade later, the family are yet to spend all of their fortune.
Jayden revealed that his parents are no longer multi-millionaires but have set themselves up to be ‘comfortable.’
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many other lucky lottery winners, who have found that the reality of scooping the jackpot can be quite different to what they imagined.
A study conducted in the US suggests that lottery winners are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three to five years compared to the average citizen.
It also revealed that around one-third of fortune winners in the US find themselves in financial trouble.
Such mishaps aren’t confined to the US, however, with there being plenty of examples of Britons who have blown their fortune in the past.
Michael Carroll, for instance, a binman who scooped £9.7million on the National Lottery in 2002, blew his fortune in just nine years.
Dubbed the ‘Lotto lout’, he gave £4million to friends and family, including £1.4million to his wife Sandra Aiken. The couple split after his win but got back together four years ago.
A friend previously told the Daily Star: ‘Mickey’s calmed down a lot and has been living quite a nice wee life and working hard.
‘Him and Sandra buried the hatchet and got back together and it has all worked out well for them.
‘It happened very quickly in the last few months but they fell right back in love and are really happy together now. What’s in the past has been forgotten about.’
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