I was a millionaire with everything I wanted, but now I've lost everything

A mother who was a millionaire with everything she ever wanted ended up bankrupt and had bailiffs at her home.

Lara Griffiths and her then husband Roger won £1.8 million on the Lotto jackpot in 2005.

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Believing their lives had been changed forever, they announced their windfall and reportedly started spending the money on expensive cars and houses.

But Lara claims their lifestyle wasn't extravagant and they spent “somewhere in the neighborhood” of the amount paid out.

Roger eventually walked out on Lara and their home in Leeds in 2011, leaving the mother-of-two devastated.

She claims she found emails between him and a friend that showed he was planning an affair with a friend – something he strongly denies.

That same year, Roger told her he only had £7 left in his bank account when the bailiffs came knocking.

Lara said she doesn't know where all the money went, but admitted “countless things have gone wrong.”

She said: 'The cars were always second hand. We had a mortgage on the house. And we had one holiday in Dubai.

'We were not able to make financial choices ourselves.

'Something that would help invest and manage the money in a positive way. We didn't know how to do that.

“We have prepared ourselves for a fall.”

Lara claims that after their split, bailiffs showed up for debts she knew nothing about.

Roger admits he made a “terrible mistake” by falling behind on mortgage repayments on a rental property they purchased, resulting in the property being repossessed.

Now, 11 years after their bitter divorce in 2013, former teacher Lara, 53, works seven days a week running a tattoo parlor and make-up studio from a shed in her garden.

She told The Sun in an exclusive chat: “I spend all my money on my two children and I don't complain about that.

“We live in the house [Roger and I] bought before the lottery and I have a successful tattoo business.

“I work seven days a week. I love my job and I love my customers. Many of my former students are customers. I consider myself incredibly lucky. I have a nice life.”

Thinking back to the moment Roger left the parental home, Lara says: “How do you process that? I had a four-year-old and a seven-year-old daughter.

“I think I was just screaming. I just couldn't ignore it.

“He claimed he had not had an affair and that he had planned to, but he had not carried it out.

“And that it was just a catalyst for him leaving me because I was my wife.

“I was having a really hard time emotionally because my father had only recently passed away, so things were quite unsettled at home. I couldn't wrap my head around how he was dealing with it.”

In a statement to The Sun, Roger claimed he had simply “fallen out of love” with Lara and was “terribly unhappy”.

Lara admits their marriage wasn't perfect, but says they seemed happy.

They married in 1997 within six months of getting together, and she considered him her “best friend” despite them being “complete opposites”.

She says she trusted him to never cheat on her and joked that she could “send Roger with a prostitute and he would never take his eyes off of her.”

Lara earned £40,000 a year as a teacher and Roger took home the same when he bought the winning ticket.

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