I never wanted to be famous, says lotto gran

Ms Hinte sobbed as she told the Worcester News her life has been wrecked and she is far from “living the high life” as recent headlines have claimed.

The Warndon grandmother was at the centre of a media storm earlier this year when she queried whether a lottery ticket she had put through the wash could be a £33 million jackpot winner.

Within days, topless pictures of her had emerged in national papers and the grandmother-of-four was dubbed 'Lotto Gran' by tabloids.

When another anonymous Worcester player successfully claimed the huge prize pot, she signed up with an agent and began trading on her notoriety.

A £15,000 exclusive interview with The Sun followed and, last week, she featured on Channel 5’s 'On Benefits', which saw more criticism heaped upon her for appearing to brag about her taxpayer-funded lifestyle.

However, the 48-year-old says she now wants to "put the record straight".

Ms Hinte, known as Sanne, says she had never claimed to have won the lottery and wants to return to her old, normal life.

She said: “I didn’t want to be famous. I wouldn’t want that life for anything.”

“I just want my life back. I didn’t have much of a life before but it was something.

“I’m just existing and not living anymore.”

Ms Hinte described how her Lottery saga began, saying the winning numbers were one of five lines written in a little black book that she played "occasionally".

She had a habit of pinning any ticket to her fridge until after the draw. After hearing a lottery winner was from Worcester, she checked the fridge but found no ticket.

She says she knew she had played the previous week but turned her kitchen upside down looking for it after doubts preyed on her mind.

After waking in the night, she checked the pocket of a pair of jeans in her wardrobe and found the semi-obliterated ticket and decided to send it to Camelot to put her mind at rest.

She said she had not done anything different to more than 400 others – but feels she was the only one singled out for criticism.

Camelot revealed at the time that hundreds had come forward as possible winners for the jackpot.

She said: “I knew it wasn’t that draw but what if I had been wrong and I hadn’t sent it in?”

Ms Hinte sobbed as she denied cashing in on her new-found fame, saying she had been portrayed badly in Channel 5's programme.

She said: “Let’s get one thing straight. I am not living the high life. For all these stories I’ve hardly got any payments.

“I’ve probably been paid for about three and I have to pay an agent quite a substantial amount.

“No amount of money will ever make this right.

“My life has gone. The public are looking at me like I’m scum. Everybody is laughing at me.

“My whole life has been wrecked."

“They don’t know what my grandchildren have been through.

“They say, ‘why is Nanny in the paper with no clothes on?’

“That’s all people will remember me for, for the rest of my life.”

“I feel like I’m having a nervous breakdown with it all.”

The only silver lining she sees is that the money she has made has allowed her to pay off her debts including rent arrears, court fines and money she owed bailiffs and her daughter.

She said: “That’s the only thing that’s come out of it that I have got is I’m debt free.

“But I’ve become a woman who has defrauded the lottery and I want people to stop saying that because it’s not what I’ve done.”

When asked why she didn’t stop posing for pictures or going on the TV, she said she had no other options.

She said: “I have no friends. I know it seems very sad. I’m on my own.

“I’m clinging on to it for a reason. If I haven’t got that I’ve got nothing.

“I don’t want to be in the paper but I am in this now. People won’t forget.

“If I stopped this nobody would want to talk to me.

“If somebody could give me a bit of a life than I could stop.”

*"I'VE LOST MY FRIENDS AND CAN'T TRUST ANYONE"

Ms Hinte says the fallout from her Lotto ordeal has seen her lose friends and left her unable to trust anyone.

“I don’t want to be on my own but I can’t trust anyone," she said.

"I’ve lost a lot of friends. You find out who your real ones are. It’s been horrendous."

Ms Hinte also told of her grief at how her beloved mother died from cancer aged just 39 and her sorrow that she subsequently fell out with her step-father, who died before they could be reconciled.

Further rows with her remaining family in Germany and two failed marriages meant she has spent much of her life battling against loneliness.

"I never wanted to be on my own," she said.

Ms Hinte also told the Worcester News she "hates" being on benefits and had worked for the majority of her life in various jobs including as a theatre nurse, beautician, a custody officer and even the landlady of a Cutnall Green pub.

She said: “I didn’t want to go on benefits. I hated it and I hope they will give me the all clear and say you can go back to work. I will be the first one in the queue.

“I’ve only been on benefits since February and yes I have got money on benefits but I’d rather not have a heart condition.

“Last year I nearly died. I spent five days in critical care.”

Ms Hinte, who was born in Germany but came to Britain in 1988, was criticised again last month after revealing she had set up a jacuzzi in the garden of her home while claiming benefit payments for her ill-health.

However, she said she bought it with savings and is now considering "ripping it out".

She also says she has not enjoyed the brief glimpses of the high-life she has seen since she came to the nation's attention.

After selling her story, Ms Hinte says she has enjoyed stays at an upmarket hotel but that was "not as good as it looked".

She said: “I didn’t understand it really.

“Someone, like a butler, came to open the door and said, ‘have you got any luggage’ and I was giving him my Lidl bag.

“I just wanted to go home and be like it was before but I couldn’t everything had changed.”