I won £99k but kept it secret from my family for a YEAR… here’s why I kept quiet about life-changing sum
A MAN who won £99,000 on a game show has explained why he get the money secret from his family for a year.
Daniel O’Halloran, 24, won the whopping prize on ITV quiz show The 1% Club in 2022.
Daniel, from Bebington, Wirral, told nobody but his grandma about the massive prize until the episode featuring him was broadcast on TV.
He revealed that his lucky night was filmed in July last year, but didn’t make it onto our screens until April 29.
He kept the secret for all those nine months so his family would be able to enjoy the stunning surprise.
Daniel told his parents he had opted to settle for the £10,000 he had already banked on the show, but actually decline that offer from host Lee Mack, instead choosing to risk it all for the jackpot.
He told the Chester Standard: “For the last nine months, my family had thought I’d taken the £10,000 because I wouldn’t have been able to keep a whole secret.
“On Saturday, we all watched it together and when I said I would take on the question they were just going nuts.
“I didn’t know how I was going to do it. You only have 30 seconds on each question, but I just got my head in it for those 30 seconds.
“I remember on the day, my mum and dad both called me for half an hour separately and quizzed me, which was my revision.”
He added that he wasn’t even going to go on the show, but that a surprise call from the producers and the urging of his mum convinced him.
As well as stunning his family, he has become a local hero and said he was taken aback by the level of support he received from neighbours.
Daniel also had nothing but praise for the show, saying he had an incredible experience and that everyone he met was “kind and lovely”.
It comes after one woman admitted that she had to keep her £250,000 win secret for seven months for similar reasons.
However, she revealed how her friends guessed that she had bagged the “lifesaving” sum because of her new luxury lifestyle.