Online Reporter
LONDON.—IT’S the sort of money most of us can only dream of. A Euromillions jackpot of £148million doesn’t just make you rich — it puts you in the same league as mega earners like Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles.
But for Adrian Bayford, his lottery ticket was the starting gun for a rollercoaster of divorce, four failed engagements, scrapes with police and bizarre businesses.
Now, as his latest scheme to transform his mansion into a learning hub is revealed, pals have told The Sun what Adrian REALLY thinks of his win 14 years on.
Jump back to 2012, and struggling record shop-owner and postman Adrian, now 55, and his hospital cleaner wife Gillian were the envy of the nation.
They were all smiles as they went public with their extraordinary £148m jackpot. Not just enough to retire on —but enough to ensure generations of their family to come could live comfortably.
Whether they were ready for the money was a different matter.
Their treat on discovering their mega-wealth was simple — takeaway Domino’s pizza with the kids. The first luxury buy? Gillian was clear —she wanted an Audi Q7.
On that day in 2012, everything seemed just perfect, but it didn’t stay that way for long before the lotto curse struck.
One pal told The Sun: “I know secretly inside Adrian often wishes he had never won the money at all.”
LOTTO CURSE
Within 15 months, the couple had split —dividing their winnings down the middle.
Gillian said the marriage had broken down “irretrievably”, while the pair were both forced to deny rumours they had been seeing other people, including whispers of a fling between Gillian and the gardener at the couple’s £12m Cambridgeshire mansion.
Such was the division that Adrian was said to have charged at the worker with his golf buggy.
Gillian moved back to her native Dundee. Swapping golf buggies for the Audis she had always craved, she was soon engaged to car dealer Alan Warnock after he sold her THREE of the German cars at the local showroom.
Adrian also moved on and was quickly betrothed to sausage factory-worker Marta Jarosz. She later claimed she simply worked for him as a £1,200 per month “driver, bodyguard and personal assistant”, despite him asking her to marry him via text.
Determined to finally find love, Adrian stumbled across it on his doorstep when stable girl Samantha Burbidge bumped into the filthy-rich bachelor in a pub.
He had moved the horse-mad estate hand into his manor and proposed to the 27-year-old during a luxury trip to the Maldives following a whirlwind six-week romance.
For a while, at least, all seemed fine, but in a pattern that Adrian would define as his post-jackpot life, stability and love seemed to disappear as easily as they arrived.
After three years together, she not only walked out on Adrian — she went straight back to her former boyfriend and took 30 of the horses Adrian had bought her, worth £1million, along with her too. Sam didn’t forget to take the £60,000 Mercedes he gifted her as well.
POST-JACKPOT LIFE
Adrian’s win hasn’t prevented a string of brushes with the law either.
And in 2017, cops were called to the property after Samantha Burbidge’s engagement ring was stolen in a £100,000 raid. A 47-year-old man was arrested, with no further action being taken.
The most serious incident came in 2021, when Adrian’s 13-year-old son was left fighting for his life after he was hit by a car driven by his sister, 15, while riding a quad bike on the estate.
The lad was thrown into a fence and rushed to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he was placed in an induced coma in intensive care.
Fortunately, he responded well to treatment, leaving Adrian and Gillian, who had dashed from Scotland to be at his bedside, relieved.
But the fact that the drama involved two vehicles purchased by Adrian with his winnings and given to his children as gifts seemed to confirm to those who believe in the “lottery curse” that it actually exists.
A pal said Adrian was left “consumed by guilt” after the accident, and hugely regretted allowing his son to ride the quad bike.
They added: “That basically summed up Adrian’s experience since winning the money. Everything he touched seemed to go wrong.”
Adrian was also concerned with establishing a thriving career as well.
Some remarked: “I’m not sure he knows how rich he really is.” But once a grater always a grafter, and Adrian wasn’t afraid of an honest day’s work.
One Christmas, Adrian had the bright idea of selling Christmas trees from his front lawn. To save on cash, he even insisted on lifting the spruces into customers’ boots himself.
His big career ideas didn’t end there. The rocker stuffed a barn full of incredible music memorabilia in a bid to become the “go-to” online stockist for rarities.
The music fan opened two second-hand record and entertainment memorabilia shops in his local area — selling everything from life-size cut-outs of Hollywood legends to signed Beatles collectables.
UNLUCKY IN LOVE
Back home in Cambs., he went out for dinner with pals to Frankie and Benny’s, and love was back on the table when diner waitress Lisa Kemp, then 40, appeared.
Adrian was back in love. Until Lisa found intimate messages Adrian had been sending sausage factory worker and his old flame, Marta. Engagement number three was over.
The collapse of his relationship with Lisa undoubtedly hit Adrian hard. He stayed single for five years.
But by 2023, he was back off the market, when his path crossed with Tracey Biles, 47, who had been friends with Adrian for years.
When Tracey said yes, pals knew this time it would work, saying: “They are normal people who want normal things — they just so happen to have £75million in the bank.” — Sun Club
