Man whose family won the lottery reveals sad reality of becoming rich quick
Faima Bakar
Featured Image Credit: Maskot/Getty images
We've probably all fantasised about winning the lottery one day, and how we might not tell people - but there would be signs (a fridge stocked with Lurpak, perhaps?).
But for one Australian man it wasn't a fantasy, as his dad's numbers were up, resulting in the family becoming multi-millionaires.
Jayden Clark, from Adelaide, southern Australia, was 12 when he and his sister came home from school one day to the news that their dad, who had tried his luck on the lottery for the past five years, finally won a huge payout.
The TikToker revealed how he and his family had grown up working class, 'living pay cheque to pay cheque', in a house that his parents were fighting to keep, only for all that to change overnight.
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Jayden explained how at first there was paranoia over the news of their fortune, especially as they'd heard horror stories of people who lost their millions or were harmed for it.
As he was only 12 at the time of winning, Jayden said he didn't fathom what the change would mean but said he had structure in his childhood and would still have to justify the purchases he wanted to his parents.
"At that age I had no understanding of money and how much that was going to change our life", he told his followers on TikTok.
"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."
But suddenly coming into money also skewed reality for Jayden, he added, as he always felt out of place.
"You have this weird mentality of work and value of money. Winning the lottery makes it hard to feel like a normal person", he said.
"For a long time I wanted to share my story, but then I would just feel embarrassed by it. Very often we would feel out of place and like we’re not fitting in anywhere – that’s the truth.
"At home I felt like an outcast, I felt guilty for having the money."
He also said he wasn't made to feel proud of having money as it wasn't something they they had 'achieved'.
A decade later, his parents separated and the family sold their assets, but it was a unique experience for Jayden, who has since moved to Los Angeles.