{"id":2928,"date":"2026-08-12T00:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2928"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:14:37","slug":"national-lottery-responds-after-couple-told-they-cant-collect-200-million-jackpot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2928","title":{"rendered":"National Lottery Responds After Couple Told They Can\u2019t Collect $200 Million Jackpot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Lottery has responded to a couple who were told they\u00a0couldn\u2019t claim their $200 million jackpot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many of us, winning the lottery is what dreams are made of.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a classic ice breaker at parties, with some people naming purchases they would make that are\u00a0highly<\/em>\u00a0questionable.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the news no one expects to receive, but would absolutely love for it to happen.<\/p>\n

Yet for one young couple, their \u2018win\u2019 ended up turning into a complete nightmare.<\/p>\n

Winning numbers<\/h2>\n

Rachel Kennedy and Liam McCrohan, who were 19 and 21 at the time, believed they had won the \u00a3182 million ($216 million) jackpot on the EuroMillions.<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0The Sun, Kennedy said: \u201cI went on the app and it said \u2018Winning Match\u2019 and I thought \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019ve won.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I called my boyfriend Liam and my mum into the room and they couldn\u2019t believe it either.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite being told her numbers were a \u2018winning match,\u2019 one vital error meant that the two were never able to collect their money \u2013 potentially making the scenario the highest high, to the lowest low, ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

\"Euromillions
The couple was left devastated when they found out they weren\u2019t eligible for the prize money. Credit: @McCrohan\/X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spending the winnings<\/h2>\n

The Hertfordshire couple \u2013 who had played the same numbers for multiple weeks in a row \u2013 admit they got a bit \u2018carried away\u2019 in fantasizing about how they could spend the money.<\/p>\n

McCrohan, an economics student, was working out how they could go through the huge sum of cash.<\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cI had kind of spent it in my head already.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McCrohan, it meant the couple could buy their \u2018dream home and dream car.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, the couple quickly found out they wouldn\u2019t be getting their hands on the staggering fortune.<\/p>\n

Lottery incident goes viral<\/h2>\n
\"Rachel
The couple had no idea that their lottery story would go viral on social media. Credit: Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After finding out what had actually happened, McCrohan took to X (formerly\u00a0Twitter) and posted about their unfortunate mishap \u2013 he had no idea their story would go\u00a0viral.<\/p>\n

The post \u2018blew up\u2019 and got over 31,000 reactions, meanwhile, Kennedy was \u2018too embarrassed\u2019 to talk about it.<\/p>\n

The vital error<\/h2>\n

It turned out that Kennedy, a university student, hadn\u2019t realized one huge error \u2013 she didn\u2019t have the necessary funds in her account to purchase the ticket.<\/p>\n

Her account had been automatically set up to enter into the draw with her usual numbers.<\/p>\n

She explained: \u201cI called the number thinking that I had won \u00a3182 million and they said \u2018Yeah you\u2019ve got the right numbers but you didn\u2019t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on top of the\u00a0world\u00a0when I thought I had won, but when I found out I hadn\u2019t, Liam was actually more upset than I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy added that they had the \u2018worst luck.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Rachel
Rachel Kennedy quickly realized she didn\u2019t have the necessary funds in her account. Credit: Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

National Lottery issues a response<\/h2>\n

After the heart-shattering moment took the internet by storm, the National Lottery responded.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the company stated: \u201cWe\u2019re aware of Rachel\u2019s story, and hope she gets in early to buy a ticket for the next big draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added that they wish her \u2018the best of luck in future draws.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Euromillions jackpot that the couple unfortunately missed out on ended up being rolled over five times before ultimately being claimed by a winner in Switzerland, as per the\u00a0Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

For those wondering, the lucky numbers were 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6, and 11.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time the lottery has caused a whole ton of drama, as one couple ended up\u00a0arguing over their \u2018joint\u2019 $1.3 million win, with one person even saying: \u201cOne million pounds has never brought so much misery.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Lottery has responded to a couple who were told they\u00a0couldn\u2019t claim their $200 million jackpot. For many of us, winning the lottery is what dreams are made of. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-2928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2929,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions\/2929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}