The football pools winner whose life ended in misery
Viv Nicholson was just 25 when she won the Littlewood's football pools in 1961.
But the story doesn’t have a happy ending.
Viv and her husband scooped £152,319 (£3.6m in today's money) on the pools.
A life changing sum of money, especially for a coal miner's daughter.
Growing up in poverty Viv left school at 14 to work in the local liquorice factory.
At 16 she became pregnant and married Matthew Johnson.
But Viv soon left her husband to marry neighbour, Keith Nicholson.
In 1961, just two years later, she had 4 children.
On the day they won the jackpot the couple were whisked from their council house in West Yorkshire to London where TV star Bruce Forsyth handed them the cheque.
Viv was on top of the world and told the media she would "spend, spend, spend"!
But lavish spending on cars, fur coats, jewellery and holidays was about to end badly.
The couple had no concept of how to handle such a fortune. Spending quickly became an addiction.
By her own admission, Viv faced difficulty in coping with the psychological effects of her new found wealth.
She started to feel distanced from her friends and family who could no longer relate to her.
During this time Viv developed an even greater desire to spend more and buy more.
But tragedy was about to strike.
Keith died in a car accident and Nicholson's alcoholism started to take hold.
Viv's fortune rapidly dwindled and she was forced to declare bankruptcy.
In an attempt to start a new life Nicholson relocated to Malta, but was deported after assaulting a policeman.
Viv remarried, but her new husband Brian Wright was later killed in a car crash.
Soon after she entered a mental home to escape from her next husband Graham Ellison, who abused her during their short 13 week marriage.
Her fifth and final husband, Gary Shaw, died of a drug overdose.
Nicholson died at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield at age 79 on 11 April 2015 after having a stroke and suffering from dementia.
A photograph of Nicholson was used on the sleeve of the Smiths' 1984 single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now".
Quiz time
- 1982
- 1976
- 1973
- 1969
