News writer
After winning a jackpot of $11 million, a 73-year-old Scottish Lottery winner lived as a recluse with his wife. He has now died, just months after his wife passed away.
In 1995, Paul Madison and his then-business partner Mark Gardiner won a lottery prize of more than £22 million. After spitting the jackpot, Paul, originally from England, retired from his job as the manager of a double-glazing company and moved to Perth, Scotland. Unfortunately, just a few months later, his wife left him.
Paul settled into Lettertabor Lodge – his luxury six-bedroom home – and hired cleaner Evelyn McGillivary. Before long, the two fell in love and held their private wedding on a beach in Mauritia on Valentine's Day in 1997. After spending £10,000 lovingly restoring Lettertabor Lodge, Paul sold it for £450,000.
Living the life of a recluse
Shortly after, Paul and his wife bought Robgill Tower, a 16th-century property near Dumfries in Scotland, for £650,000. There, the couple lived a quiet life as recluses. Their neighbors said Paul and Evelyn were rarely seen leaving their 40-acre estate.
Eventually, in 2008, the couple put their home on the market for £2.8 million. According to a report in the Daily Record newspaper, Evelyn said that the house had become too big for them, and they needed to downsize after enjoying the “lottery fantasy” of the big house. After selling Robgill Tower, the couple returned to the Perth and Kinross area. Paul Madison died on November 28, a few months after his wife Evelyn, aged 62, passed away after battling ill health.
The other side of the lottery win
In a 2009 interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, Paul Madison's former business partner, Mark Gardiner, said the lottery win ruined his life. He explained:
On the day of my win, I wasn't even watching the lottery draw. For the previous few months, I had been clubbing together with my friend and business partner, Paul Maddison, to buy £50 of tickets each week, always using the same numbers.
The business partners found out they had won the lottery during a game of bowls when they heard their numbers on the radio. Paul took their lottery ticket to the local newsagent, where he had bought it, to get the numbers verified. While he was there, an acquaintance heard the shopkeeper congratulating Paul and released the information to the press. Soon after, the National Lottery operators Camelot phone the winners to tell them that journalists were hot on their way to speak to them. Camelot sent an advisory team to meet with Paul and Mark at a nearby hotel.
Mark Gardiner said it took a while for his win to really sink in. He said:
It was at the hotel that Camelot told us we had the only winning ticket in the £22.6 million jackpot. We went to the bar and had a few drinks to celebrate, but we were still in shock, and for a long time, all Paul and I could do was just stare at each other - we didn't know what to say.
The dark side of being a lottery winner
Mark described how, after the press release, he was soon bombarded with demands for a share of his money. These included begging letters, marriage proposals, and, in one case, a threat of legal action from a former girlfriend. The woman claimed that Mark was her child's father and he owed her money for child maintenance.
Unfortunately, over the next few years, Mark made a series of bad investments, including purchasing two unsuccessful local football clubs and houses for his closest friends. Gradually, the pressure from all the unwanted attention, the pain of his friends taking advantage of him, and the breakup of his fourth marriage became too much, and Mark severed all ties.
Eventually, Mark got back together with his first wife and had a son. Now much wiser, he works as a glazier and is happy with his life.
