Woman keeps a secret and had to pay $1.3 million lottery winnings to her ex-husband
28 years ago, Denise Rossi won the jackpot in the Florida lottery. It was a big win that she decided to keep secret from her husband, a certain Thomas Rossi.
For several years now, the American had been planning to leave her husband... without knowing how to go about it. So when she won $1.3 million in the lottery, it didn't take her long to put her plan into action. This incredible win opened the door to another life, away from Thomas Rossi, whom she ended up leaving two weeks after her victory.
Before leaving, Denise Rossi decided not to tell her husband that she had won the jackpot. Indeed, the American didn't want to share the money with him. After 25 years of marriage, the couple finally divorced.
A revealing letter
Denise Rossi's life went from a dream to a nightmare. A few years after their divorce, Thomas Rossi found a letter from a lottery winnings management company. This discovery enabled him to discover his ex-wife's secret. As reported by Demotivateur, he then remembered her strange behavior at the time of the separation: “She wanted me to leave the house very quickly. It wasn't like her to do that,” Thomas told People magazine in 2004.
Feeling duped, Thomas Rossi went to court to seek redress. The result? The judge recognized that his ex-wife had violated the laws on disclosure of assets and funds, and that she had acted fraudulently or maliciously, says Demotivateur. Denise Rossi was therefore ordered to pay her ex-husband 20 annual instalments worth $66,800, the total amount of her lottery winnings.
(MH with AsD - Source : Demotivateur - Illustration : Unsplash)