The Lancashire couple who have scooped a whopping £61,000,000 EuroMillions jackpot have been named as Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne.

The lucky pair won a £61,708,231 share of the £123 million jackpot prize from the draw on January 30 – with the other winning ticket having been bought in Spain.

Lancashire Telegraph:

The National Lottery revealed the winners of the jackpot today at a media event at Mitton Hall Hotel in the Ribble Valley. 

Debbie has already handed her notice in at her civil engineering job and self-employed Richard is looking forward to early retirement. 

The couple were enjoying a week-long holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, when they discovered the news.

Richard said: “It was the second day of our holiday and I had got up early to finish off a bit of work. I noticed the email from The National Lottery stating that there was ‘exciting news about your ticket’. So I checked my National Lottery account and saw the balance had gone up and we’d won £2.60. Fair enough. I shut my laptop, had breakfast and then we set off for the day, driving around the island. We enjoyed the sea views, blue skies and windsurfers before heading back.  

“It was early afternoon when we spotted another email saying we should check our account. I thought it was odd and there must be a glitch in the system to get a duplicate email but I logged in again to my National Lottery account to check. We were totally stunned, it said we had won over £61M!”

He added: “We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix up. I know it sounds crazy but we couldn’t think straight! I tried calling The National Lottery’s number but my mobile phone signal was poor and the call just kept dropping. So I WhatsApped the family chat group asking for one of our daughters to call us urgently. My youngest came back quickly and we asked her to log into our National Lottery account from the UK and double-check. She put in my details and then just kept repeating ’oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!’ It must be real, this was the official National Lottery website we were all looking at.”

Richard and Debbie called The National Lottery twice more but the calls kept dropping due to the poor signal in the hotel. The couple couldn't wait any longer so grabbed the hire car keys and started driving around the island to find a stronger signal.

Richard said: ”We must have looked a right sight, Deb was holding the phone as high as she could, checking the number of bars as I drove! She started shouting ‘stop here, stop here!’ and I pulled over on a verge.”

READ MORE: Down to earth Colne couple bought ‘luxury’ bedding after £61m win

But the road to discovering they were multi-millionaires was still not plain sailing, “We finally got through to The National Lottery and we were in the middle of answering security questions when unbelievably there was a man tapping at my window! We were politely trying to tell him to go away, pointing at the mobile phone to indicate we were busy but he kept on tapping! Frustratingly, he wanted to park his bus in our spot on the verge and wouldn't give up! By this point my stress levels were through the roof! 

“I had to ask the lady on the phone to give me a few minutes to move my car, hoping the signal didn’t drop in the meantime! We continued with the call, the lady checked with her manager and then came back on the line to say - and I’ll never forget these words - ‘So, I need to get this right…I can confirm you are the winners of the £61,708,321 EuroMillions jackpot prize!’”

“Well, by this time me and Debs are going mental…jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, thumping the dashboard…the car must have been rocking...it was the whole Delboy and Rodney scene when they finally became millionaires outside Sotheby's!”

Lancashire Telegraph:

At the time of discovering their win, the couple were two days into their week-long holiday in Fuerteventura. Richard had always wanted to visit the island to watch the windsurfers in action as he had competed in the sport as a teenager.

Richard explained, “This trip had always been on my bucket list as I loved windsurfing from a young age. I was very lucky to have been supported by my amazing parents in order to compete on the national circuit when I was a teen and I have always wanted to travel to the island and witness the surfing there with my own eyes. However, we just couldn't settle once the news of our win had been confirmed. We were now multi-millionaires!”

Back at the hotel the pair quickly came to the conclusion that they would fly home and found a flight heading back to the UK the next day. Before heading home, however, the couple headed out for a celebratory dinner, although they discovered they had completely lost their appetite!

Once back on British soil, and as The National Lottery security checks and validation process took place, the couple began to plan how they might enjoy their new found fortune. Top of the list for Richard and Debbie is a new family home, still in their beloved Lancashire, where they can host big family Christmas get-togethers. The couple are also planning for a holiday home in Portugal and hope to visit soon to start their search. 

Lancashire Telegraph:

But, it’s early retirement that is going to make the biggest impact on the pair’s lives in the short term. Debbie has already handed in her notice at her civil engineering job where she works as a Bidding & Estimating Support Assistant. 

Meanwhile Richard is self-employed, having run his own accountancy business for more than 20 years. As a bookkeeper and management accountant with a  number of clients, he is now in the process of informing them that he doesn't plan to work beyond the end of this tax year. Richard says, “Obviously I am not going to leave anyone in the lurch - my clients have been fantastic and loyal to me and I will of course do their payroll if they are stuck. They are being very understanding but I am looking to wind things up as soon as possible and finally take it easy.”

The couple are also looking forward to enjoying their new found free time. Richard is planning to play more golf, both in the UK and abroad, and even has a ‘Golf Swing Room’ on his wishlist at the new house; whilst Debbie hankers after a bigger garden, a greenhouse and extra land for Monty the dog to enjoy. Richard has already made his first purchase of a brand new BMW X5, which was selected for its extra large boot, big enough to transport his golf clubs! 

Richard said: “It’s crazy to think that just five weeks ago, we had been looking to downsize to a small bungalow to live out the next few years. We even found one nearby that needed a lot of work and were considering an offer. Now we are very much upsizing, with plenty of land for Debbie and the dog to enjoy. Our lives are going to be so different. We have worked hard all our lives and we are now very much looking forward to taking life a bit easier. But not just that, this win will also change the lives of those closest to us, and hopefully the next generation after that too.” 

Richard and Debbie also have a charity close to their hearts, for which they are ambassadors and plan to continue to support, called BK’S HEROES. The charity was set up in Debbie’s cousin, Ben King's memory after he died of a rare condition, Tubular Interstitial Nephritis and Uveitis, at age 27. The whole family support the charity which aims to raise awareness of brain cancer and kidney disease as well as raising funds for research into prevention and treatment of these illnesses.

READ MORE: Hundreds remember courageous chef Ben King at emotional funeral

Richard said: “This charity means so much to our family and we are all involved. It was originally set up to raise funds for the ward where Ben was so brilliantly cared for but we have gone on to raise much more. Ben was such an inspiration to all of us. He was incredibly brave and positive throughout his treatment and it was his wish for this charity to be set up to do what it can to help lives in the future.”

Richard has been playing EuroMillions for eight years, buying one Lucky Dip line each Tuesday and Friday by Direct Debit through the National Lottery website. Whilst he has landed a few smaller wins, he admits he never dreamt of landing such a huge prize.

READ MORE: The 10 biggest UK lottery winners as £61M Colne couple 29th on rich list

The couple have taken the 29th spot on The National Lottery Rich List. They are the 39th UK winner to bank a prize of £50M or more on EuroMillions, and join the more than 7,000 millionaires created by The National Lottery since 1994.

The winning numbers in the EuroMillions draw on Tuesday 30 January, 2024 were 05, 10, 19, 27, 30 and the two Lucky Stars were 05 and 06. The jackpot prize was £123,416,462, which was shared between two ticket-holders, one in the UK and the other in Spain.