The grandmother who claimed she put a lottery ticket worth £33 million through the wash has said she felt suicidal and will never play again after losing out on the jackpot, and has admitted she never thought she had the winning ticket.
Susanne Hinte had claimed she bought a ticket bearing the winning numbers, but that it had been badly damaged after she put it through the wash.
The 48-year-old hit the headlines as Camelot appealed for the second winner of the record £66 million Lotto jackpot to come forward.
Susanne Hinte had claimed she won the £33 million jackpot with a ticket she put through the wash
But she said the spotlight had left her "going out of my mind".
Hinte told the Sun on Sunday: "No amount of money I could ever get could make up for what has happened. I wish I'd never done it. I am never going to buy a lottery ticket again. I mean that with all my heart.
"I wanted to kill myself last week because I just thought nothing can be worse than this. I am sorry for what's happened, my life has been taken away from me."
She admitted she "never believed it was the winning ticket" but denied altering it in an attempt to fool Camelot, which warned it would take action against attempted fraud.
The ticket emerged crumpled in a jeans pocket after being washed at 60 degrees.
Camelot announced on Thursday that it had received a valid claim on the £33 million Lotto jackpot; the winner wants to remain anonymous
Hinte, from Warndon, Worcester, took it to the newsagent where she bought it to see if it could go through the scanner but when it did not, she returned home and wrote to Camelot instead.
She said talk of possible police investigations into fraudulent claims was "frightening".
"I'm not perfect but I haven't done anything wrong. Everyone is mentioning fraud but I don't think I am in the wrong. My conscience is clear," she added.
The lottery operator had been investigating hundreds of claims of lost, damaged or stolen tickets in Worcester before the punter who scooped the half-share came forward. The winner has chosen to remain anonymous.
Married couple David and Carol Martin, both 54, from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, won the other half of the massive payout from the January 9 draw.