Sad story proves you can be lucky in lottery, but not in love

Last week we learned that for one couple scooping the Euromillions jackpot hasn’t brought them the happiness they hoped for.

Winning £148 million on the lottery sounds like a dream come true. But Adrian and Gillian Bayford from Suffolk are splitting up 15 months after their huge prize winning draw. They blame the “stress” of becoming overnight millionaires.

So far so familiar.

Many people will think: “That’s the kind of stress I could cope with!”

But is it? As you struggle to pay the bills or worry if your job is safe and don’t even mention the cost of Christmas it’s easy to be impatient with people who say wealth brings stress.

But it happens too often not to be true.

Carnoustie-born girl Gillian Bayford is, according to friends, “revelling’ in her new glamorous lifestyle. She’s had a makeover, bought lots of new clothes and enjoys driving her children around in luxury cars.

But husband Adrian has found it hard to adjust to their new way of life.

He hasn’t settled into their big £6 million mansion and there were ‘rumours’ Gillian was having an affair, which have been denied.

The fact is money changes things and it changes people.

We all have different ideas about how we would handle it.

If you’ve been brought up learning to budget and to wait for things a rash of cash can go to your head.

I think I’d be like a child let loose in Santa’s grotto if I won millions. I’d be filling my trolley with goodies and I’d enjoy buying the people I love everything they’d ever wanted.

But then what?

Would there come a day when I’d wonder: “Do they just like me for what I can give?” Think of the hassle too of dealing with bankers who’d want me to make clever decisions about investments?

I’d have to move house and I’d miss my neighbour who brings my wheelie bin in, sweeps up the leaves on our shared path and has a good old moan about life. I couldn’t just have a simple night out with my pals and a bag of chips on the way home.

It’s human nature to want a little more money than we have. But be careful what you wish for.

The sudden wealth of a huge win brings its own kind of pressures.

I wish the Lottery organisers would share the cash differently so that more people could win smaller amounts.

I know it’s not as headline grabbing as a rags to riches story but to shine up a few more lives is better than tarnishing the happiness of one family.