Shelley Humphries, burger van owner & mum of five, from Northampton won the life-changing sum in the live final of £1,000,000. Shelley plans to donate to great Ormond Street & treat her family with her winnings.
Heart’s Make Me a Millionaire is the biggest competition on UK radio hosted by heart breakfast’s Jamie Theakston & Amanda Holden
Heart listener Shelley Humphries was crowned Britain’s newest millionaire live on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden this morning (Friday 28th May), when she won a life-changing £1,000,000 in Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire competition.
Shelley Humphries, a burger van owner and mum of five from Northampton, scooped the biggest prize in UK radio after entering the competition which has seen hundreds of winners take home prizes ranging from £1,000 to £20,000 over the past 13 weeks.
In an extraordinary morning on Heart Breakfast, Shelley took home the grand prize of £1,000,000 after originally turning down £10,000 for the chance to be in the draw – one of the biggest prize funds to be turned down by any finalist.
Speaking about her win, Shelley Humphries said: “I’m on top of the world right now, it’s so surreal. To win £1million means so much to me, it will make such a difference to my life and it’ll open up so many opportunities for me and my family. It means I’ll be able to say yes to my children more often.”
Shelley told Heart listeners why Great Ormond Street is so special to her as they treated her nieces from when they were tiny babies. Now she plans on donating to Great Ormond Street telling Jamie and Amanda: “I have two nieces that they helped at a very, very young age, at six weeks old both of them… I nearly lost my dad … and I just can’t thank them enough and being able to say thank you to them is a first and a must.”
Shelley also hopes to take her family on holiday, telling Heart: “I’ve never had all my children with me together on one holiday before and so I’m hoping to be able to go on a family holiday to Portugal. I’d also like to upgrade my burger van – I’d love one with a bit of heating in or maybe even a café where you can have the heating on permanently!”
Heart’s Make Me a Millionaire launched on 1st March and over the past three months each winner has faced an ultimatum – to take that day’s prize fund or forgo the money to enter into the Million Pound Final for the chance to win £1million. The dramatic live final took place in a specially constructed vault live on Heart Breakfast this morning and began with 38 contestants in the running to win the life-changing sum. Some finalists had turned down cash prizes of up to £13,000 for the chance to be in the Million Pound Final.
A lottery machine randomly selected the final nine contestants for the Grand Final, with the tenth place then won live on air as listeners played one final round of the Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire game. In the order they were selected at random by the lottery machine, the final contestants were then invited to choose a numbered, securely sealed safety deposit box, which was then opened by Amanda Holden live on air and on Global Player. Nine out of ten boxes in the vault contained the message ‘Heart Make Me £1,000 richer’, with one box holding the Million Pound message.
Winner Shelley Humphries was eighth to select a box from the vault, and revealed that the numbers she had originally planned to choose had already been taken by other contestants who picked before her.
All safety deposit boxes were securely sealed and kept under strict lock and key, with only the independent adjudicator aware of their contents. The nation tuned in as the drama unfolded live on Heart, Global Player, Twitter, and Facebook.
Heart brought back the hugely popular competition for a second year for 2021, following its enormous success in 2020.
Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston dressed up in celebration of the momentous occasion, with Amanda wearing a spectacular red jewel encrusted dress and Jamie donning a matching bow tie.
Heart Breakfast’s Jamie Theakston said: “This morning was very special on Heart Breakfast as we crowned the winner of Heart’s Make Me a Millionaire. It was a great honour to share this life-changing moment with Shelley. Make Me a Millionaire is the biggest competition in UK radio and the suspense and drama that we’ve witnessed over the past 13 weeks has captivated listeners. We’d like to thank everyone who took part and we send huge congratulations to Shelley.”
Heart Breakfast’s Amanda Holden said: “We are so thrilled for our wonderful winner Shelley. It truly has been the most incredible and emotional morning on Heart Breakfast, and it was our great privilege to crown Shelley as our very worthy winner. All of us at Heart send all our best wishes and many congratulations to Shelley and her family.”
VIDEO: Watch the emotional moment the winner was crowned HERE
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