Kelly Dighton, a mother of three from Lowestoft, Suffolk, who won £11.5 million with her former partner, has revealed she still enjoys shopping in Primark. Despite her new wealth, she recently treated her friends to a splurge at the Birmingham store.
Primark trips and designer buys
Speaking on the Tea At Four podcast, she said: “We went to Primark in Birmingham and I was like ‘Girls, get what you want.’ And I know it is only Primark but to them that’s lovely, do you know what I mean? And it’s lovely for me. I love a Primark haul.”
She added: “Don’t get me wrong, these (shoes) are Gucci. I’ve bought a couple of handbags and stuff like that. When I first won it, I went to Flannels. I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’ Me and my daughter, she is 24 so was like, ‘Come on mum.’ And then after that, it just wears off. And I can just buy a £5 skirt and put one of my nice bags and people are always thinking it’s expensive aren’t they because of what I’ve got.”
Life-changing win
Kelly’s fortunes changed after she and former partner Arron Freeman placed a £1.50 bet on the ‘Megah Moolah’ online slot game, winning Betfred’s biggest ever payout. They each took £5.5 million and have since gone their separate ways. Kelly shares insights on TikTok with the tagline “from council estate to multi-millionaire”.
During the interview, she insisted that money does buy happiness, but it does not buy health or love. She also opened up about the downsides of winning a huge windfall, including death threats and begging letters.
Dark side of winning
“When you win that kind of money, you are in a bubble,” she said. “I had death threats, people saying they were going to kidnap me to my partner. So we just had to get in a car and go.” She added: “You find out who your real friends are. I mean, I get begging letters every day. There’s only so many people you can help.”
She also recounted a false claim from a friend: “One of my friends said to me, ‘I’ve got to have scans on a brain tumour. Can you lend me some money?’ And then it wasn’t true. It’s not true. Why would you do that?”
Generosity and disbelief
Kelly has been generous with her money, giving her mum and sister significant sums, buying her cousin a house, and gifting her friend a van with a ramp so she could take her disabled child out on day trips. Despite it being over a year since the win, she said it still doesn’t feel real, and she often wakes up and checks her balance to make sure it really happened.
