Couple wins $88mn lottery, daughter says ‘whatever’

LONDON - “Whatever”, said the teenaged daughter of a British couple who won a 56 million-pound (about $88 million) EuroMillions lottery.

When Nigel Page discovered he had won 56 million pounds on the lottery he couldn’t say a word while his stunned partner Justine Laycock said: “Oh my God”.

But her 15-year-old daughter Georgia’s reaction was like that of a typical teenager.

“She just said, `Whatever’…she was a typical teenager about it,” said Laycock after the couple discovered they were Britain’s biggest winners, Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Laycock, 41, is a senior sales negotiator for an estate agent while Page, 43, runs a property maintenance business.

The couple, who would make around 47,000 pounds a week in interest if they banked all their jackpot, said they were confident that the massive win will not spoil their children.

“We’re so proud of them - they are very level-headed.

“They are more calm about it than we are. They’ve joked about getting a tarantula and getting a little Shetland pony so her feet can run on the ground by the side while she’s riding it but that’s it. So all they want so far is a spider and a pony,” Laycock was quoted as saying.

Page discovered he had won Saturday morning when he checked his laptop computer while Laycock was having a lie-in after a night out with work colleagues.

“I logged into my account to see if we’d won. I saw the win for 55 pounds there and just below it was the 56 million pound EuroMillions prize. I started shaking and couldn’t speak,” Daily Mail quoted Page as saying.

Laycock said: “I knew something was up as Nigel never wakes me up on a Saturday morning and he looked so worried. All he said was, `I need you urgently - I need to show you something’.

“I thought something awful had happened but he took me to the computer and there it was on the screen. His hands were shaking so much he couldn’t pick up the phone, so I called the lottery line and they confirmed it was true - we were the 56 million pound winners. Then we went into the front room and just stood there laughing.”

The prize would make the couple among some of the wealthiest in the country, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2009, Guardian reported on its web site.

According to the list in April, the couple would become wealthier than Van Morrison (50 million pounds), Kylie Minogue (35 million), and Michael Caine (45 million) as well as Hugh Grant, Jenson Button and Jamie Oliver - all reported to be individually worth about 40 million pounds.

Friday’s 113 million pound Euromillions jackpot was shared by two tickets, the other ticket being bought in Spain. The jackpot surpasses the 91 million pounds paid last November that was shared between two tickets.