Mel Giedroyc

Exclusive: The 29-year-old civil servant has been saving for a home of his own for as long as he can remember

The £1million winner of Win Win with Postcode Lottery has slept on a sofa at his gran’s house for the past 15 years – since being orphaned aged 13.

Kieran McLaughliin, 29, from Glasgow said he will spend his prize money on buying his first home after moving in with his grandmother, May, nearly 16 years ago. He and his twin brother, Kane, were orphaned after the death of their father, which came five years after they lost their mother at the age of eight.

Keiran told The Mirror: “I’ve lived with my Gran since I was about 13. She took me in, and my brother and I each sleep on one of the two couches. It’s insane to think that I’ve slept on a couch for 15 years. It’s just mad. With the money, I can obviously just go and buy a house. I’ve been saving for a house, believe me, I’ve been saving. But it’s just so hard.”

Kieran currently works six days a week, and now hopes to focus more on his side-hustle. “I’m a civil servant Monday to Friday, and then I work as a bridal and event make-up artist on Saturdays as well. It’s crazy because I can just have whatever time off I want now, I don’t need to work six days out of seven. I’ll probably go part-time in the civil service.

“I don’t really do the make-up for the income. I actually do it just for fun because I love being a part of somebody’s wedding and making them feel special. I think I’ll try to focus more on that.”

After his win aired on ITV last night, he was asked who he’d tell first. Kieran said: “I’m scared to tell my Gran because I feel like I’m going to give her a heart attack. She’s 83, so I need to kind of ease it into conversation. I can’t just disrupt her peace and kill off my Gran when I win £1,000,000 pounds.”

He plans to properly celebrate by going on the luxury cruise he won with boyfriend Reece, a final year nursing student, in January. “He’s coming on the Caribbean cruise, and then he starts his eight-week placement two days afterwards – it’s such good timing.”

He also intends to share the money with his brother. “Every single week before I went to play on the show, he would ask me, ‘What are you going to give me when you win?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m going to think about it.’ So, I will give him a good chunk of money. He’s my twin, I’ve spent my whole life with him, and I just want to give him what I’ve got as well. I know he needs a new work van because his work van has just broken down, so I’ll probably buy him one.”

Kieran also plans to take Kane on another of his prizes, a trip to Florida, because they have family there. The new millionaire also plans to start house-hunting soon. “I’ll buy a house straight away,” he declared. “I’m usually so scared of spending money, so the second thing I’ll do will definitely be to get a financial adviser.”

In the programme, hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, viewers have watched Kieran succeed over six weeks, eventually beating fellow player Sabrina to the top prize. He said he never doubted that he could go all the way. “From my audition, I said, ‘I know I have what it takes to win the £1million. I can see myself in the final.’ I’m either delusional or overly confident, or maybe I’m both because I’ve done it.”

He correctly answered that most people who won a life-changing amount of money would choose to give some to friends rather than take them all on holiday or buy all the drinks in the pub.

Kieran described being on the show as the “best six weeks of my life” but that he’d found it very hard at the end. “I felt so nervous, clearly, because I was crying like every five minutes. I could barely stand up.

“Every single contestant that has walked through the door has been one of the nicest people ever. Nobody has ever been ungrateful. Everybody’s so loving and caring. They’re so kind. I would have been so happy if it had been anybody else that won, from the bottom of my heart.”

Now, Kieran says he’s still pinching himself over the win. “Hearing the word millionaire is crazy. That money is insane. People don’t see that amount of money where I’m from. It’s actually mind-blowing. I genuinely feel like I’m dreaming, but I also feel like I deserve it. It’s crazy to try to put it into words.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

ITV’s Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins shared their thoughts on the final episode of Win Win with Postcode Lottery

Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins give one player £1 million on ITV’s Win Win with Postcode Lottery.

The wait is finally over. ITV viewers will soon discover which contestant will walk away a staggering millionaire and a range of incredible prizes, as the last episode of Win Win with Postcode Lottery airs tonight (October 31).

Each week, the contestants who have won their round have been given a choice: take home the prize they’ve won or take a seat on Millionaire’s Row for a chance to win the huge jackpot and all the prizes throughout the competition.

Ahead of the series finale, presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins gave their thoughts on how they’re feeling ahead of discovering the winner. As Mel confessed it’s a mixture of “sweat, adrenaline and excitement”, Sue emphasised how much is at stake for the players.

Mel commented: “One of those people will win that; it’s mind-blowing. Remembering back to the final of last series, the atmosphere was very tense.” At the same time, Sue added: “Yeah, much quieter. People are serious about it.

“And I think people then think about their choices. Should I have traded? Should I have taken the prize? It gets to the really sharp end of the business. It’s just overwhelming when somebody wins because you’re not only winning the cash, you’re winning all those holidays.

Ensure our latest TV stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings

“Enough holidays to last you a lifetime, really. We’ll be coming on most of them. I don’t think people got the T’s and C’s that we were coming on, did they? They should have done; we’ll be there.

Last year, ITV viewers saw Sienna McSwiggan take home the huge jackpot. She also won two cars, two luxury holidays, a trip to Australia to see The Ashes and tickets to see Take That in concert.

At the time, she only had £1 in her bank account before receiving the life-changing money. Sharing a video on TikTok at the time, telling her mum she’d become a millionaire, Sienna said: “Telling my mum who has gone through so much that I’ve won a million pounds on a TV show is the best feeling in the entire world.”

Speaking about the previous winner, Mel said: “We caught up with her this year, and good news, she is super steady, sensible, doing all the right things. So, it was a great night actually.” Sue added: “You do worry a bit. You think this is going to just spin them out of orbit, but she’s a smart one, and she’s just really enjoying the money.”

The final of Win Win with Postcode Lottery is available to watch on ITV1 on Saturday, October 31 at 7.30pm

Mary Berry has had her say on Nigella Lawson, who has taken over Prue Leith’s role as judge on The Great British Bake Off. Mary originally held the role alongside Paul Hollywood

TV cook and former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry has backed Nigella Lawson – saying she is a “glamorous” addition to the show who has brought “new life” to the format.

Mary, 91, had clearly been watching the current run of Bake Off and was full of praise for Nigella on the new series, whilst also urging her to take fellow judge Paul Hollywood to task.

Dame Mary said: “Bake Off is a wonderful format. We started it off not knowing what we were doing and then Prue has been doing it and it is a format and you fit into it.

‘I am delighted Nigella is there. She has got to keep control of a certain person. Paul needs handling and he has this handshake which keeps appearing.

To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.

“Nigella has brought some glamour to it, and she really likes tasting doesn’t she? And I know how she feels, I always took a proper mouthful because if you just take a little bit, the person whose food you are tasting, their auntie will say ‘well she didn’t even taste it’. So I was aware of that.

“Nigella is a joy and I think she has brought new life and I think it will do really well. A touch of glamour.”

Speaking on stage at Cheltenham with comedian and former host of Bake Off Mel Giedroyc, the pair recalled how Mary would sometimes arrive for day two of filming in the tent with the same hair and make up, having slept without taking it off to minimise the amount of time she needed to be styled.

Laughing, Dame Mary said: “Why not? I used to put a towel over the pillow, I didn’t want them to think I was grotty. It does take such a long time for someone to do your make up.”

She also said she found the tent cold and would hide hot water bottles under her jackets.

Dame Mary was appearing at Cheltenham to promote her first gardening book, My Gardening Life and a new cook book All In One.

Arguably she was a gardener before she could cook, as she recalled how her father grew practical crops such as potatoes, sweet peas and celery during wartime to feed the family.

“My dad had to take to gardening because he had to dig for Britain and he gave me a little patch and I grew radishes,” she recalled.

Nowadays she has six raised beds in her garden raised to above knee height so she can easily reach them and even perch on the edge if she wants to take a rest.

She said one of her greatest pleasures now in life was ‘deadheading’ in the garden, the process by which you removed faded or spent flowers to tidy up plants.

She explained: “Deadheading is one of my favourite things, you don’t have to dress up for it. I can do it when I get in tonight if its not dark. I can deadhead the roses which are still flowering and it so encourages more things to come on.”

She added: “Gardening is similar to cooking, you follow a formula. But cooking you can follow a recipe and produce it by tonight. Gardening you have got to be much more patient.

“Which do I prefer, gardening or cooking? I think the two go together. We grow vegetables that we eat, things that I like, so there is no kale, lots of herbs and I think they go together.

“I am a fair weather gardener, I would walk a dog in any weather but I don’t garden in any weather. I wait until the sun comes out.”

Dame Mary is of course better known for her baking and cooking. Having studied in France and the UK, she worked for a number of food industry bodies and wrote recipe pages of Housewife magazine.

Her first cookbook, The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, was published in 1970 and since then she has gone on to write more than 50 others, which have sold millions of copies around the world.

Already a big name in food, Dame Mary became a household name to a new generation of cake lovers when she landed the role as a judge on The Great British Bake Off, alongside Paul Hollywood, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in 2010.

She quit the show in 2016, along with the hosts Mel and Sue, when it moved to Channel 4, staying loyal to the BBC and continuing to make shows there.

* My Gardening Life by Mary Berry is out now, published by DK.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.