(WSVN) - A 21-year-old woman threatened to sue the lottery, saying that winning it ruined her life. But after being on the receiving end of a slew of angry comments, she’s now changing her tune.
Four years ago, Jane Park won the EuroMillions lottery in Edinburgh, Scotland, taking home about $1.4 million (U.S.) when she was just 17 after she played the lotto for the first time.
“It’s scary how different my life is from my friends,” she told the Daily Record. “There’s no one in the same boat as me, no one who really understands. I feel like I’m a 40-year-old.”
Park owns two houses, a Range Rover, and a BMW, and is known for flaunting her wealth and pricey purchases on her Instagram. She said she only gets to go on four vacations a year because her friends cannot afford to go more often.
Sounds rough.
In an interview with the Mirror, Park said, “I thought it would make [life] ten times better but it’s made it ten times worse. I wish I had no money most days.”
She continued, “People look at me and think, ‘I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money.’ But they don’t realize the extent of my stress. I have material things but apart from that my life is empty. What is my purpose in life?”
Before winning, Park worked as an administrative temp, earning about $10 (U.S.) an hour while living at home with her mother.
Camelot, which runs the EuroMillions lottery, told the Sun they offered Park support, including financial and legal counseling, after she took home the prize.
“It is always up to the winners as to whether they want to take up that support,” a Camelot official said.
After Park originally announced her intent to sue the lottery, arguing that the “16 or older” limit was too low, she received heavy backlash across the U.K., with tabloids and television shows blasting her for complaining about her riches.
In response, Park appeared on the talk show “Loose Women” Wednesday, saying she no longer is planning to take legal action since she was just trying to get her point of view heard.
“Because it went so far out there I’m not even going to have to go any further because I feel like I’m being listened to now and I feel like people are actually listening to the difficulties,” she said.
When one of the show’s hosts asked if Park had considered giving the money away, Park responded, “I’m not saying it’s completely unhappy because there are parts of my life which are good and there are days where I wouldn’t change anything. I’m just saying there is days where I am upset and it does get on top of me but in the future I do want to have a family and there is family I’ve got now so I just want to be able to provide support for them.”
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