Inside the life of couple who won £5m on Lotto before being hit by tragedy

A LUCKY couple who scooped a whopping £5million on the lotto thought they had it all – until they were struck by a huge tragedy.

Barry Chuwen, 53, and his wife Jenny, 55, won £4.5m in 1997 and splashed out on luxury properties across Glasgow.

Hairdresser Barry was just 27 when he became one of Scotland’s biggest-ever winners.

He and his wife splashed out on several new homes, a fleet of supercars and posh skiing and golf holidays.

But just six years after the big win, the couple’s lives were once more turned upside down – but this time for the worse.

Their little boy Ted was stillborn three months premature after suffering from a rare condition known as Edwards syndrome.

A year after the tragedy the pair set up charity The Teddy Bear Foundation to help kids with special needs – in his memory.

But charity watchdog OSCR has since launched a probe after serious concerns were raised about both “governance and financial controls”.

Speaking to the Daily Record, Barry addressed the “great deal of stress” the probe put he and Jenny under.

And he said it was during this “difficult time” that he met someone else through work.

Confirming his relationship is over, Barry said: “We are doing everything we can to co-operate with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

“Discussions over this have caused a great deal of stress for Jenny and I, on top of pressures related to business and a protracted period of ill health.

“I also acknowledge that during this difficult time in our lives, I developed a relationship with someone who I met through work.

“I have apologised to Jenny and our children and hope to continue to be a loving father to them as they grow up.”

Barry and Jenny have three kids aged 21, 17 and 15.

The couple are selling their £1.75m five-bedroom detached home in Whitecraigs, East Renfrewshire.

The couple’s charity The Teddy Bear Trust has spent nearly £500,000 taking kids with special needs to Euro Disney.

It has also provided youngsters with riding lessons, massage sessions and has built sensory gardens.

The OSCR are understood to be investigating payments which were made by the charity to a company connected to one of its trustees last year.

OSCR said: “We are concerned that there has been misconduct in the administration of the charity and consider it necessary and desirable to take protective action in respect of the charity’s property.

“We have therefore issued a formal direction to the charity’s bank preventing it from parting with any property of the charity without OSCR’s consent.”

Chuwen, from Newton Mearns, scooped the lotto prize when he was just 27-years-old.

After he won, Chuwen stayed at his salon next to Queen Street station for 15 months and then went on to open his property firm Jasper Wishaw.

The company and its subsidiaries bought commercial properties and rented them out to shops including Italian Centre and the Varsace shop in Glasgow.

But the Bank of Scotland pulled the plug after debts started to spiral in 2013, causing the £30million portfolio to go bust.

Chuwen’s other company MQ Estate Agents Limited also went into liquidation in 2020.