Featured Image Credit: CBS Instagram/janeparkx
Topics: News
Emma Guinness
Most of us have fantasised about winning the lottery and the many ways it would change our lives for the better.
But one Scottish woman, who won when she was just 17, said that the experience of becoming a lottery millionaire is one she wouldn't 'wish on anyone'. This is how it made her miserable:
Jane Park, now 27, made the revelation to Dr Phil on an episode titled 'The Curse of the Lottery', where she discussed what it was like to win a million pounds as a teenager.
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Bringing up some of the negative effects of her win, Dr Phil McGraw said: "You had stalkers, death threats..."
The 27-year-old, who is from Edinburgh, replied: "I wish I'd never won it, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
"At 17, you aren't even a proper adult, you know what I mean, I was such a young naive 17-year-old as well."
Jane explained that her troubles began after the lottery encouraged her to go public with her win because it happened at such a young age.
"You can be anonymous, but you are encouraged to go public - they prefer that especially when the case is a bit different," she admitted.
"So because I was 17 they were like 'oh this is kind of unheard of, you should tell people'."
Jane said this was the biggest mistake she made with her win - and not the purchases she proceeded to make.
"I don't regret any of the money that I've spent. My only regret would be going so public," she said.
Jane described her ordeal as being like a 'dark, twisted fairy-tale' and added in another interview with Tyla said it's left her with huge trust issues as she has no idea if people like her for who she is or her money.
She also admitted to having some plastic surgery and wonders if the men who show an interest in her would still be interested if she had not won big and changed her appearance.
However, some good has come from Jane's experience.
She threatened to sue lottery bosses to raise the age of playing from 16 to 18, arguing that if a person is too young to gamble, then they should also to be too young to play the lottery.
Since then, the age in the UK has been raised to 18, and she said she believes her story has helped affect this change.
"In the UK, it was 18 to gamble and 16 to play the lottery," she told Dr Phil. "You couldn't put a pound in a machine or couldn't go in the shop and buy cigarettes or alcohol, and you couldn't go into a casino, but you could play the lottery.
"I was basically wanting them to listen, like me calling them up and saying 'you should raise the age' they were never going to listen and that is why I went massive with it.
"Since then, that story went very big and they have raised the age to 18 and I feel like I've made a massive impact on that."