‘My wallet has got more attractive, not me’, says £71m EuroMillions winner
Ade Goodchild, from Hereford, is the ‘happiest bloke you could imagine’.
A £71 million EuroMillions jackpot winner who is quitting his factory job and planning a spending spree says he is “the happiest bloke you could imagine”.
Ade Goodchild, 58, from Hereford, wants a new house with a jacuzzi, “a few staff” and dream holidays to places such as the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids.
He swigged champagne at a four-star hotel in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, after going public with his win on Wednesday, saying: “I’m not one of these winners who is going to say this win won’t change me. It bloody well will, or at least I’ll give it a damn good go.”
He replied: “Anybody I think I couldn’t have pulled before has got no chance, because I haven’t suddenly become more attractive overnight – just my wallet has.”
Mr Goodchild said he had in the past “done stupid things” which he had learned from, but joked he would be “stupid” to tell journalist what they were.
He is handing in his notice after working for more than 24 years at a metal factory in Hereford, and will spend some of his windfall on his family, who are originally from South Wales, including buying his parents a home.
On Saturday he celebrated by doing “what I was going to do anyway” – watching Wales clinch the rugby Six Nations Grand Slam with his father.
“(We had) slightly fancier beer than we would have, nice Italian beer, sent out for pizza and had some spicy wings – the sort of things millionaires do every Saturday,” he said.
Mr Goodchild, who has no children but owns two labradoodle dogs, added that watching Wales win had “felt more real than the lottery”.
He claimed he always had a feeling he would win some money in his life.
“I’ve been doing the lottery since it started, and even then, before that I thought, ‘I’ll be rich one day, I’ll have to be lucky to get it’,” he said.
“Lucky is what I turned out to be. I’m just about the happiest bloke you could imagine.”
The winning ticket was bought at a Co-op store on Ledbury Road in Hereford.
It comes after Patrick and Frances Connolly scooped £114.9 million from the draw on New Year’s Day.
In July 2011, Colin and Chris Weir from Ayrshire became the biggest lottery winners in the UK, and across Europe, when they won more than £161 million.
The winning numbers from the draw on Friday March 15 were 03, 15, 24, 42, 46, and Lucky Stars 09 and 12.
