Luís Ribeiro and Cristina Simões were once a happy couple with the innocent habit of playing the lottery every week, but they could never have predicted that a winning ticket would be the beginning of a bitter feud.
In a picturesque town, Luís Ribeiro and Cristina Simões had built their relationship on shared dreams and small traditions.
Every week, without fail, they pooled their money to buy a EuroMillions lottery ticket at a local café, a simple ritual that embodied their hopes for a better future.
Then, on January 19, 2007, the unthinkable happened – they won the €15million (£12.4m) jackpot. But it didn’t end the way they expected and, off the back of a Brit claiming the latest mega EuroMillions jackpot, we take a look at their story.
Together with Cristina’s parents, they traveled from Barcelos in Portugal to the capital Lisbon to claim the enormous prize from Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Portugal’s national lottery authority. The winnings were then deposited into multiple accounts at Caixa de Crédito Agrícola, a regional bank.
Crucially, the money wasn’t just in Luís and Cristina’s names, but also in the names of Cristina’s parents. At first, the fortune seemed to strengthen their bond. The couple discussed how they would use the money and agreed to split the interest generated by the winnings, allowing both of them financial security. They spoke of travel, investments, and even marriage, a future now more tangible than ever.
But the money ended up changing their lives in ways they didn’t expect: The cracks in the relationship began to show when Luís requested to withdraw his portion of the winnings to support his own family. But Cristina’s parents blocked his access, insisting that financial decisions should be made only after the couple married. To Luís, this was an insult – he had always assumed the winnings belonged equally to both of them.
Their relationship quickly deteriorated. The tension escalated to a breaking point in 2008, when Luís, frustrated and unable to access what he believed was rightfully his, took a drastic step – he filed a legal injunction that froze all the bank accounts linked to the lottery winnings.
With the money locked away, the dispute spiraled into a bitter court battle that would drag on for more than a decade. The key question at the heart of the case was simple but contentious: Who really owned the €15 million?
Luís was adamant – he and Cristina had purchased the winning ticket together, just as they had done every other week for years. He argued that their long-standing tradition was proof of an unspoken agreement to share any winnings equally.
Cristina, however, denied this, claiming that she had paid for the winning ticket alone. If true, this would mean the fortune was legally hers alone, and she was determined to fight for it.
The Barcelos Court was the first to rule on the matter, siding with Luís. The judges recognized that the couple had consistently bought lottery tickets together, and this established a precedent of shared ownership.
But Cristina was not willing to let the ruling stand. She appealed the decision, taking the case to the Guimarães Court of Appeal. Once again, the court ruled in Luís’ favour. The judges upheld the argument that the winnings were a joint effort, reinforcing that the money should be split equally.
Yet even after this second defeat, Cristina refused to back down. She took the case to Portugal’s Supreme Court, hoping for a final reversal in her favour.
While the legal battle raged on, the money sat untouched in the frozen accounts. But time was on the side of the couple’s bank balance – by the time the Supreme Court issued its final ruling, the original €15 million had grown to €16 million thanks to accumulated interest.
Despite Cristina’s relentless appeals, the Supreme Court upheld the previous rulings. The decision was final: the money had to be split evenly.
By the time the dust settled, Luís and Cristina were no longer a couple. The relationship that had once been built on love and shared dreams was now irreparably broken.
Luís had won, but it was a bittersweet victory. He had spent years fighting for what he believed was rightfully his, but the process had taken a significant emotional toll. A farmer living in his parents’ house, he expressed in one of the most recent interviews he gave to local news outlets: “My life goes on, and it will go on the same way”.
Cristina, meanwhile, had gone from a hopeful bride-to-be to a woman locked in a losing battle over a fortune she had hoped to keep.