The Dark Side of Winning EuroMillions That No One Talks About

EuroMillions winner Dolores McNamara had it all - numbers lined up, her life transformed, and worries disappeared, for a while at least. The Internet has lately been busy wondering where McNamara has been and how her big win has transformed her life.

The conversation started with a Reddit user asking a simple, loaded question: "Lottery winners, what is the dark side of sudden wealth that nobody warns you about?"

Over the years, Dolores McNamara has braved it all - from kidnapping threats, to road accidents to legal settlements.

First, a brief memory refresher: Twenty years ago, the mother of six from Limerick, who worked as a part-time cleaner, went into a store to refill her phone. She asked for a lottery ticket on a whim. She became the 58th-richest person in Ireland overnight after making an impulsive €2 EuroMillions ticket that earned her €115 million.

The responses were not what everyone wanted to hear. One contributor wrote, "A lot of people don't warn you that sudden money can ruin relationships. Friends and family start treating you differently, and not always in a good way. It also puts insane pressure on you to manage it perfectly, and the stress can hit harder than the thrill of winning."

Another added a note of caution: "A lot of winners say the biggest mistake was not staying quiet early on. The money can fix problems, but the attention can create brand-new ones if you don't protect yourself early."

As the draw was being shown on TV, she asked a friend to check the ticket at the Track Bar in Limerick. She was crying uncontrollably a few moments later. The Irish Mirror was told by the barmaid that "the drink started flowing and the champagne was poured and we had a great night celebrating." By morning, the whole country knew her name.

Her solicitor rushed out a statement: "She is absolutely determined that her feet and the feet of her family will remain firmly on the ground." It was a noble intention, but reality and Dolores had other plans.

Dolores purchased a spectacular €1.75 million estate, Lough Derg Hall in Killaloe, County Clare, which was reputedly eyed by Robert De Niro, as well as houses for each of her six children throughout Limerick. However, the wealth brought with it something that no mansion could keep out.

Kidnapping threats drove Dolores to install 24-hour security at her house. Panic alarms were reportedly installed throughout her children's properties. In 2005, one of her boys was forced to flee from his home when officials alerted him that he was the target of a planned abduction by a notorious criminal organization.

The money that was supposed to fix everything had made her family a target. The suffering only intensified in the years that followed. A road accident in 2015 resulted in a legal settlement years later. After a brief illness, her husband Adrian, a former bricklayer who had invested in his own racetrack, passed away in 2021. He was barely sixty years old.

In all these years, Dolores, who is now in her mid-60s, has only done one interview: with the Limerick Leader, where she said, "The question asked of me most frequently was how I felt about my win, and my answer is still the same. I feel disbelief and shock."

She went in to top-up her phone. She emerged with a life she had never really asked for.