A young Aussie has revealed how his life drastically changed after his low income earning father won the lottery making his family instantly rich.
Jayden Clark, 22, told how his mother collected him and his sister from school with a ‘huge surprise’ waiting for them at their Adelaide home about a decade ago.
Inside, Mr Clark found his parents holding a ‘gigantic’ oversized cheque. They had won the jackpot.
‘Overnight we went from being pretty decently poor to multi-millionaires,’ he said. ‘It was the most interesting thing to ever happen to us.
‘We had a home that I remember, like, at this stage my parents were fighting to keep it, and it was very much paycheque-to-paycheque lifestyle.
‘My dad, being a bit of a gambler… used the same repeat numbers he’d been using for five years and he won the lottery.’
Mr Clark said he didn’t feel he deserved the money and that his sudden wealth embarrassed him.
‘For the longest time I would always go back and forth from wanting to share my story to then feeling so embarrassed by it,’ he said.
Influencer Jayden Clark, 22, revealed his family won the lottery in Adelaide ten years ago
He said he often felt embarrassed by his humble family’s meteoric rise to being multi-millionaires
‘Growing up, at least in Australia, when I did become aware of it, [people] would always make it very clear that we didn’t deserve it – because we didn’t work hard.
‘Even growing up we had the most beautiful house, like it was a blueprint for a reality show.
‘It was on a street with like doctors and priests that owned churches – and there was us. We were this like bogan lottery family.’
He said once he moved to the United States, he began to feel better about his situation.
‘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. Back home I even felt like an outcast,’ Mr Clark said.
‘But I definitely was made to feel it wasn’t anything to be proud of.’
The 22-year-old said at first his family didn’t know how to manage the millions, but now they live comfortably
The Aussie influencer is known for his TikTok videos about his lifestyle and living in LA, he’s currently dating American radio presenter Zach Sang
Mr Clark said the money did mean the family could do a lot of things they had always wanted to do – including taking a ride to the airport in a limousine.
‘My mum was very generous, helping family,’ he said.
‘Growing up, my best friends would spend Christmas Eve and stay over with us and have Santa bring them presents.’
Mr Clark said his family tried to be inclusive to as many people as possible.
‘We’d almost feel bad, not for them directly, but more so feel bad that we were so lucky,’ he said.
In the beginning, Mr Clark said the family had no idea how to manage the cash.
His family initially took two weeks from school and work to plan what they would do with their fortune.
‘They didn’t have anyone that came from money. They really had to figure it all out on their own,’ Mr Clark said.
His mum managed to figure out how to keep the family afloat off the winnings in the decade since the win.
Mr Clark revealed his parents are no longer multi-millionaires, but have set themselves up to be ‘comfortable’.
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