Britain's youngest EuroMillions winner regrets her jackpot
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Britain's youngest EuroMillions winner has opened up about how her win didn't bring her happiness, saying she wouldn't 'wish it on anyone'.
Appearing on an episode of the US TV show Dr Phil, Jane Park, 27, discussed the downsides of her £1million EuroMillions windfall in 2013 when she was 17 years old.
In the episode, titled 'The Curse of the Lottery,' Jane, from Edinburgh was joined on the CBS show by experts discussing the odds of lotteries and the reasons people enter.
Jane said she was too young to cope with stalkers, death threats, and negative media attention, after.
In the episode, which aired on Monday night,[Psychologist Dr Phil Phil McGraw discussed the influencer's initial reaction to the win in 2013.
She explained how she ran home from the shop to call Camelot like 'Charlie and The Chocolate Factory' with her ticket.
When the win was confirmed Jane described how she was 'encouraged' to go public because of how young she was and that it was almost 'unheard'.
Dr Phil asked her how she handled the money at a young age.
Jane said: 'I splashed out a bit because I never knew the value of a million pounds, I'd never seen that kind of money.
'I never knew anyone with that kind of money, so I kind of splashed out on stuff that I've always wanted.'
Dr Phil then mentioned the abuse that Jane has received in the past ten years=.
He said: 'You had stalkers, death threats, people hiding in the bushes and commenting on everything you were doing, which when you're 17 that kind of gets under your skin.'
She replied: 'I wish I'd never won it, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.'
Jane described herself as a 'young, naïve 17-year-old.'
Dr Phil explained how Jane had spent some of her winnings on cosmetic surgery, including a boob job and Brazilian bum lift, which she never would have if she hadn't have won the money.
Jane explained: I had a procedure done in a different country and when I flew back I ended up with sepsis.'
She described how she was in hospital for a month recovering.
She said on This Morning at the time: 'I literally thought that I was going to die. I don't know what was wrong with me and they said to me I'd had a reaction to the anaesthetic.'
The influencer admitted: 'I don't regret any of the money I've spent, my only regret would be going so public.'
Dr Phil then pulled up abusive comments that Jane received in May last year, where people labelled her 'stupid' and discussed her decisions.
She said: 'These people seem to think they know more about my life and it's hard because when I was younger obviously I read the comments and they affected me.
'These people have never met me, they've probably never seen me.'
Since then Jane has been raising awareness for the age limit of the lottery to be raised from 16 to 18 in the UK.
She recalled how she called Camelot and told them she thought they should raise the age.
And now that they have raised the age to 18, Jane said: 'I feel like I made a massive impact on that.'
Dr Phil asked Jane what she thought about the concept 'the curse of the lottery'.
She replied: 'It's a very dark fairy tale that I think no one actually warns you about.'
This is not the first time that Jane has spoken publicly about her lottery win, having appeared on programmes including This Morning and Loose Women.
When she won the lottery in 2013, Jane vowed to spend it on a customised white Range Rover, a season ticket for her beloved Hibernian and a holiday in Ibiza with her friends.
She later returned to working in a chip shop, saying that she preferred a 'working routine' to a life of leisure.
Speaking to the Sunday People in 2017, Jane said: 'I thought it would make it ten times better but it’s made it ten times worse. I wish I had no money most days. I say to myself, "My life would be so much easier if I hadn’t won."
'People look at me and think, "I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money." But they don’t realise the extent of my stress.'
She said she had struggled to find a boyfriend who wasn't after her money, was sick of shopping for designer items, and missed cheap Benidorm holidays.
She dumped ex-boyfriend Mark Scales in 2015, calling him a 'snake' and said friends had claimed he was after her money.
Her relationship with Connor George also ended in 2016 after issuing him with a list of rules before he went on lads' holiday to Ibiza.
'I have material things but apart from that my life is empty. What is my purpose in life?' she asked.
In 2019, she revealed she was making money by selling racy topless pictures of herself on subscription site OnlyFans.
And she said that family intervention was the only thing that stopped her blowing her entire fortune.
'It is very easy to spend the money and once you become aware that it is yours and how much you have got it becomes even easier,' she explained during an appearance on This Morning.
'You think, "Oh well I've got the money so I can spend it". It just becomes easier to buy more stuff that you don't necessarily need.
'My family said to me "You have spent a bit of it now, you need to think about investing it". So then I got some property and put some away in the bank.
'At some point I had to take their advice or it could have went a completely different way.'
