PALIN MITENK BLOG

In the money: Nigel Page and Justine Laycock show off the cheque in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. He woke her up on Saturday morning to break the news


The couple who won £56m on the EuroMillions jackpot are set to tie the knot, a relative claimed today.

Nigel Page scooped the mammoth win on the Friday night draw with a lucky dip ticket he bought online.

He is now set to marry his partner of eight years, Justine Laycock, according to her father, retired flight engineer Colin Palmer.


Cracking open the champers: The couple, who are not married but have three children, say they hope the youngsters will remain level-headed


Mr Palmer said: ‘I think they will (get married). They’ve been together for eight years and they do think a lot of each other.

‘Their relationship is going well and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get married now.

'She'll do all the things that she's not been able to do and couldn't afford to do.

'They're just a team who work very well together - he's quite strong in supporting her and she's gregarious and strong too.

'They always seem happy together. It couldn't have happened to nicer people.'

The news comes as it was revealed that Mrs Laycock would have no legal claim over her partner’s £56m win if they were to split up, because they are not married.


Enough in the bank: The couple, who have been together for eight years, admit they are unlikely to carry on with their jobs

At a press conference held yesterday Mrs Laycock claimed that she and Mr Page had not yet decided whether to get married.


She said: 'Marriage is something we will consider when we've had a chance to think about it and everything settles down.'

Today Mrs Laycock's former mother-in-law Sheila Laycock, 74, whose plumber son Mark, 43, is the father of her two children, said she is 'very pleased' for the winning couple.

Sheila, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said: 'I'm just very pleased for them, and obviously it affects my grandchildren as well.

'For the whole family, I think we're all on cloud nine really. The world's their oyster. It's very hard to get your head around exactly what's going to happen.'

When Mr Page discovered his win, he was left speechless and shaking. A shocked Mrs Laycock gasped: 'Oh my God.'

But her 15-year-old daughter Georgia helped keep their feet on the ground.

'She just said, "Whatever"...she was a typical teenager about it,' said Mrs Laycock yesterday as the couple relived the moment they discovered they were Britain's biggest winners.

They went on to celebrate with bacon sandwiches as they waited for a Camelot adviser to arrive.

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


Time for a new set of wheels: Nigel plans to change up his white van - parked outside his home - for a BMW X-5





She won't be back: Staff at the estate agents where Ms Laycock worked watch her on TV. A spokesman there said today she 'wouldn't be working out her notice but that's understandable'


Both are divorcees and they have been together for eight years. She has two children, Georgia and Jacob, 11, and he has a daughter, Ella, 12.

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

'We're so proud of them - they are very level-headed,' said Mrs Laycock.

'They are more calm about it than we are. They've joked about getting a tarantula and getting Ella 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.'

The family plan to move from their £235,000 three-bedroom semi in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, to a six-bedroom detached, ideally with a pool. But they want to stay in the same area where their children enjoy school and have lots of friends.

They have quit their jobs, intend to holiday in Australia, New Zealand and Barbados, and fancy buying a place abroad too.


Soon to be vacated: The family's three-bedroom semi will be exchanged for a six-bedroom detached property, ideally with a pool


Mr Page plans to swap his four-year-old white van for a Range Rover Sport or a BMW X5. Mrs Laycock would like to replace her Honda Civic with a sports car, but has not yet decided which make.

The couple scooped £56,008,113.20 on Friday night's EuroMillions draw with a lucky-dip ticket Mr Page bought online.

He had already won £55 on last Wednesday's lottery draw, two days before he shared the £113million EuroMillions jackpot with the holder of the other winning ticket, who bought it in Spain and has yet to come forward.

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

'I logged into my account to see if we'd won,' he said. 'I saw the win for £55 there and just below it was the £56million EuroMillions prize. I started shaking and couldn't speak.'

Mrs Laycock, who was born in Singapore, 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 £56million winners. Then we went into the front room and just stood there laughing.'

Mr Page said the couple went to their local Waitrose for a bacon sandwich while waiting for a Camelot adviser to arrive.

'We were sitting there at the table in silence. We couldn't even swallow, it was such a shock.'

He hopes to use his riches to open the first indoor skydiving centre in the South West so enthusiasts can experience the thrill of a vertical wind tunnel.

'I've jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft but that's nothing compared to how I'm feeling now,' he said.

He added that he had planned to buy his partner a card, chocolates and flowers for Valentine's Day but with everything that happened on Saturday he had not got round to it. She said that in the light of their win she did not mind too much.

Mrs Laycock's ex-husband Mark, 43, a plumber, who lives near the couple in Cirencester, said: 'I'm very pleased for them. She came round and told me on Saturday.

'We are very friendly. It's brilliant news. They are two good parents. It'll be a great thing for Georgia and Jacob. They are made for life now.'

Mrs Laycock's father recalled how she had got herself in debt as a teenager after taking up a bank account offer where paying in £1 entitled her to a £1,000 overdraft.

Mr Palmer said: 'It went out of control and she couldn't afford to pay it back.

'She was in debt by thousands. I had to bail her out and she ended up paying me back £10 a week for months on end.


'She learned her lesson after that and has been very careful with money. She's incredibly sensible and down to earth and she won't be led down the garden path just because she's got £56million.'

The previous biggest British winners were jobless Les Scadding, 58, and a syndicate of seven Liverpudlian call-centre workers. Their two tickets shared a £91million jackpot in November last year. Three months earlier one lucky Italian scooped £128million after buying a two-euro ticket in Bagnone, Tuscany.

Mr Scadding, from Newport, South Wales, and wife Sam wished Mr Page and Mrs Laycock 'all the best'.

He said: 'We can't believe we have been knocked off the top spot so soon. We hope they enjoy their new lifestyle as much as we do ours.'

The couple's fortune makes them the 980th wealthiest in the country and richer than: Sir Mark Thatcher: £54million Noel and Liam Gallagher: £52million Guy Ritchie: £50million Tim Burton and actress Helena Bonham Carter: £50million Van Morrison: £50million Kate Moss: £40million But they are not as rich as: Rowan Atkinson: £70million Jeffrey Archer: £65million Engelbert Humperdinck: £60million


source: dailymail