Whatever Happened To £148 Million EuroMillions Winners Adrian and Gillian Bayford?

Adrian and wife Gillian celebrate their EuroMillions win of nearly £150Million at Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire. PHOTO: Daily Mail

From music store to multi-millionaire. That's the start of the story for EuroMillions winner Adrian Bayford, who together with wife Gillian won £148.6 Million (US$191M).

The couple were at home comforting their crying young son when they learned they had won the second biggest lottery jackpot in history on August 10, 2012.

The whopping £148 million win was the result of 14 rollovers on the Euromillions, and Adrian and Gillian were the only winners.

The Bayfords lived at this house in Haverhill when they won their EuroMillions lottery fortune.

Just a few days after their win, Adrian went back behind the counter of the modest High St music store he had started in Haverhill, Suffolk. He was determined that the enormous win wouldn't change their lives.

And for a few weeks at least, that seemed to be true.

The Suffolk Music Centre in 2012 which Adrian Bayford ran with his best friend Richard Hudspith. PHOTO: Daily Mail

His wife Gillian said she planned to continue to shop for bargains at local sales. The nursing assistant at Addenbrook Hospital children's ward quit her job immediately after banking the lottery cheque.

Adrian continued working at his rented shop built up from a market stall selling second-hand albums and CDs, but the queues of begging wellwishers soon tested his patience.

After four months the former postman closed the doors to the Suffolk Music Centre business for the final time and gave it away.

Gillian said the real reason the music shop had closed was that people were camping out there every day and life had become very difficult.

The Bayfords in happier days. The couple went on to buy a £6Million Georgian mansion on 100 acres with their £148M win. PHOTO: Daily Mail

Father-of-two Adrian, who is a big rock music fan had begun his second-hand music career by selling old CDs on a market stall in the late 90s. 

In the meantime, Gillian, who needed to keep busy after the win, opened a play barn with a friend. However they fell out, and it was later sold.

The playbarn business that Gillian Bayford bought, seen here in 2013. PHOTO: David Johnson

The Bayfords, who were then 516th on Britain's Rich List, bought a £6M mansion - a Georgian home set in 100 acres of farmland, new luxury cars, and took helicopter trips to visit relatives.

But cracks were starting to appear in the couple's relationship, and after two years announced they were separating. They had been married since 2004.

Adrian Bayford buying the winning Euromillions lottery ticket in Haverhill. PHOTO: CCTV

Friends say they had split the money equally.

"When you win the lottery it's so stressful," Adrian said, revealing that the win had not bought them the time together that he'd anticipated. 

"I've worked so hard on those grounds at our house that I've not had a break; we've never had time together as a couple," he told reporter Adrian Lee.

"I mean you cannot change what's happened. It is just something that happened. Things happen. Sometimes in life you have to move on. We're all happy now and life goes on."

In another comment to the Express, Adrian admitted that "things weren't great before the win".

Adrian Bayford pictured on the opening day of his new shop Black Barn Records in 2016. PHOTO: Cambridgeshire Live

He moved out of their eight-bedroom listed home with pink lights along the outside walls and five cottages in the grounds, into a more modest £500,000 property nearby.

But according to acquaintances the lottery winner suffered bouts of loneliness and frequently struggled to fill his time. Having a bulging bank account, it seems, wasn't enough.

"He misses the kids, simple as that," said one acquaintance. "It might sound crazy when a bloke has a share of £148million in the bank but there are times when you feel sorry for him."

"After his marriage broke up he had to try to build a new social life but there's always going to be the suspicion that people are attracted by his wealth."

Adrian Bayford's former girlfriend Samantha Burbidge. PHOTO: Cambridgeshire Live

Following his marriage split, he continued investing heavily in property and setting up his own buy-to-let property empire.

Adrian was linked to several women after his marriage ended. He was seeing Marta Jarosz, 31, a beautiful Polish lady who once worked as a nightclub bouncer.

Then he met head stable girl Samantha Burbidge in a pub, and after a six-week romance, whisked her away to the Maldives to propose.

Adrian Bayford with another former girlfriend, Lisa Kemp. PHOTO: Daily Mail

In 2016 the larger than life winner bought back his old shop, paying £315,000 for it along with a flat upstairs, and now is selling vinyl LPs and memorabilia. He owns the freehold of the premises, but it is being managed by friend Richard Hudspith who previously ran the Suffolk Music Centre with him.

A local trader commented, "The guys at the shop are friends of Adrian from way back. I have seen Adrian pop in a couple of times to see how things are going," reported the Daily Mail.

Gillian Bayford, 45, in 2018. PHOTO: Scottish Sun

Gillian also has invested some of her share of the win into property. The Sun reported that Gillian had bought a waterfront property in Newport-on-Tay from Adrian for £625,000.

Records for her A&G Properties Scotland firm show it has investment property worth over £16.5million. In 2018 she bought a ruined castle in Newport-on-Tay in Fife, for £619,000, more than three times the expected value.

Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Suffolk, are named as the nation's second richest lottery winners, scooping £148.6m on the EuroMillions. Report by Melissa Nathoo.

READ MORE: The Sun, Daily Mail, Express, 

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