My husband and I won a £114million lottery jackpot – you’ll never guess the first thing we bought with our winnings

ASK Frances Connolly how much she won on the lottery, and she replies, “£11­4million pounds and a few pennies”.

Actually, she confesses, it was “a lot of pennies” — £969,775-worth, to be precise.

She scooped almost £115million in January 2019 and is one of the happiest people you will ever meet.

She simply does not believe what people say about a lottery win making you miserable.

In an interview with The Sun to mark the 30th anniversary of the UK’s National Lottery, Frances says: “If you were a d**khead before you had money, you’re going to be a d**khead afterwards.

“Money is an inanimate object and has no power over you at all.

“It changes your life, not your personality.”

Since former teacher Frances and her businessman husband Paddy scooped their huge EuroMillions jackpot almost six years ago, they have given away more than £60million to family and friends.

As well as family and friends, thousands more people have benefited through the charities they have set up. The couple were living in Moira, Northern Ireland, when they hit the jackpot and never planned to go public.

We made a phone call to our three girls and said, ‘You know that couple who won the lottery last night? That was us’.

Frances

But Frances reveals for the first time how they came to tell the world they had clinched what, at the time, was then the fourth biggest UK lottery prize ever claimed.

Looking tanned following her fourth holiday of the year — a week in Barbados — she says: “We could easily have kept it quiet, and our first instinct to going public was ‘definitely not’.”

‘Make a difference’

The couple were sitting at the table with lottery winners’ adviser Andy Carter when they asked to speak to their grown-up children — twins Fiona and Natalie, and their other daughter Katrina — so they could break the news of their big win.

Frances, 58, says: “We made a phone call to our three girls and said, ‘You know that couple who won the lottery last night? That was us’.

“Then I phoned my dad, and Paddy went off to the other room and phoned his family. Then I called my brothers and sisters.

“By the time I’d phoned my last sister, my dad had phoned my aunt. She told her husband, who put it on Facebook.

“There was absolutely no point then not going public.”

So what was her first purchase after confirming she was worth £115million?

Frances says: “Do you really want to know? A pair of knickers.”

Recalling how she found herself holed up in a hotel with no fresh underwear as they prepared to announce their win to the world, Frances adds: “We left our home with nothing, to keep us safe in case anybody found out about it and came to the house. And they did — within minutes.

“When we arrived at a hotel in England on Friday night, ahead of the press conference, I had to phone our Fiona and say, ‘Will you nip down to Marks & Spencer?’.

“She got a pack of three pairs for 12 quid.” But Frances adds: “The first luxury thing I bought was for my dad — a gold pocket watch.

“Mind you, I put a letter F on it and told him when he died, I’d get it back.”

Most lottery winners will never forget the numbers they played to scoop the jackpot.

But Frances, who won on a lucky dip, reveals: “We never actually bought a physical ticket. We did it online.

“I think Paddy took a picture of the screen on the night when the computer tells you you’ve won, and your numbers come up like a ticket. As long as Andy gave me the money, I didn’t care what the numbers were. Is that a terribly mercenary thing to say?”

While they were waiting for adviser Andy to travel to Northern Ireland from his base in South Wales, Frances and Paddy began planning to use the cash to help people.

Paddy suggested we make a list of people we want to help — daughters, family and friends. Then he said, ‘So, where’s the charities?’

Frances

Frances explains: “Paddy suggested we make a list of people we want to help — daughters, family and friends.

“Then he said, ‘So, where’s the charities?’. I thought, you know, we’ve enough money. We could do something big. We could make a difference in a lot of people’s lives.”

The couple decided to start their PFC charity and, in five years, have helped tens of thousands of people.

Frances says: “Not as many as a lottery, but I’m doing my best.” Paddy, 60, had been due to move from Ireland to work for a manufacturing company in Croydon, South London.

 Instead, he quit the job and they bought a £1.9million, five-bedroom home with a swimming pool in the North East, where Frances drives a Jaguar and Paddy has an Alfa Romeo.

‘He’ll get an old banger’

She says: “Our fun car is an Aston Martin. But it’s a second-hand one.”

I ask if their three daughters and three grandchildren are enjoying the win? “Yes, they are. Definitely,” Frances says.

“It comes with more issues for young people than it does for older people. After the first few months, our Natalie said to me, ‘I’m absolutely sick of sitting in on meetings where all we talk about is what happens when you die’.

“We have three daughters — one’s married, one’s got a little girl and one’s happily single. They’re very, very sensible.

“But now they’ve got issues of prenuptial agreements and what happens if we give them money and somebody divorces them.

“Natalie loves travelling, but she goes economy and whinges at me if I manage to pay for a ticket and I put her on business class.”

Remarkably, despite having millions in the bank, Frances and Paddy never fly first class. She says: “We got offered an upgrade to first class once and I refused it. Because if you’re in first class, they give you a cubicle. I don’t want a cubicle. I want to sit beside my husband.”

Frances begins every day at home with a 7.30am swim, where she is joined by a group of friends — the same group that will soon be helping her decorate the house for Christmas.

She says: “Our house looks like Santa’s grotto.

“My lovely friends all help me put my Christmas decorations up and we make a whole day of it.

“We wear stupid T-shirts and we have lunch brought in, with a few glasses of bubbly or whatever they want.

“We spend Christmas Day with our little granddaughter and then Boxing Day with our grandsons. One of them is 17 this year and he’ll be looking for his first car, so I would imagine his Christmas present this year is going to be substantially bigger than normal.

“But he’ll be getting an old banger. I’m not paying insurance on a brand new car for a 17-year-old. No way.”

Frances and Paddy have always worked hard, but they are busier now than they were before winning the lottery.

Every Monday morning, the couple have a diary meeting to plan their week.

I work with lots of groups in the voluntary sector. If the lottery wasn’t there, these organisations and the communities they support would be devastated.

Frances

Frances shows me her calendar, which is colour-coded and packed with meetings, charity events and trips to Ireland, where the couple are doing up a house.

She says: “Going public has worked out in our favour because I don’t think we could have done what we have done without the freedom that it has given us.”

Even now, Frances is still in contact with her lottery adviser Andy.

She says: “If anything happens, I still phone him and say what we’re going to do.

“I’m not being funny. Without the lottery, we’d be scuppered as a nation.

“I work with lots of groups in the voluntary sector. If the lottery wasn’t there, these organisations and the communities they support would be devastated.”

In a plea to the public to back the lottery by buying a ticket, she adds: “For God’s sake, keep those two quids coming.”