A man has revealed the toll winning the lottery took on his life, when his family became multi-millionaires when he was just 12. He even had to move away to try and be ‘normal’
Most of us dream of winning the lottery, but one lucky player has opened up about the “dark side” to the fortunes and the huge toll it took on his childhood.
The young man, who claims to be a millionaire, has revealed what it’s truly like to win the cash after his family scooped up a life-changing amount overnight – which later forced him to move abroad in a bid for some ‘normality’.
Jayden, 22 from Adelaide, South Australia took to TikTok to share what happened to his life once his family became mega-rich, revealing he feltt “embarassed” and felt as if he didn’t fit in anywhere.
He recalled the moment around a decade ago when he and his siblings got home from school to hear that their mum had a “surprise” for them. They were expecting to hear she was pregnant. However, his parents showed them a “gigantic” cheque and said they had won the lottery jackpot.
While he never explicitly shared how much they won, he said it was enough to make them multi-millionaires. “I remember not thinking much of it other than just the excitement my parents had. At that age, I had no understanding of money and how much that was going to change our life,” he said, adding: “I remember we took two weeks off school to plan how we were going to do life – we didn’t know anyone who had any money so we had to figure it all out ourselves.”
Jayden said his family had gone from being “pretty decently poor to multi-millionaires” overnight, and he became embarrassed about it. It’s only now, 10 years later, that the 22-year-old feels ready to share his story. He said he felt “guilty” and “like an outcast” after his parents’ big win and admitted, “It had a big impact on us all, especially us kids.”
“You have this weird mentality of work and value of money. Winning the lottery makes it hard to feel like a normal person. For a long time, I wanted to share my story, but then I would just feel embarrassed by it.”
He said that very often, the family would feel “out of place” and struggle to fit in and added, “That’s the truth. At home [in Adelaide] I felt like an outcast; I felt guilty for having the money.” So, he decided to move to Los Angeles to “feel normal again.”
Jayden explained: “Not until I came to LA did I feel like I belonged and was normal because there’s so many crazy people here with crazy lives.” He also noted that his parents are no longer multi-millionaires but have managed to set themselves up to be “comfortable”.
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