Picture a life where you are free from the anxiety of paying bills, only to have that sense of freedom taken away in an instant due to a minor technicality.

After playing the winning numbers for the EuroMillions jackpot, a young couple from Hertfordshire received the life-changing news that they had won an enormous £182 million.

Rachel Kennedy, aged 19, and Liam McCrohan, aged 21, were over the moon when the numbers they regularly played ended up being the winning combination.

Rachel told the media in 2021: "I logged onto the app cause I saw that man who called up and didn't realise he had won money but won millions, so I thought f*** it I'll do the same."

"It said 'Winning match on the 27th Feb'."

"I called up and the woman said, 'Yeah they're the right numbers, but you didn't put any numbers on this week'.

The couple was left heartbroken after discovering that the payment for Rachel's ticket had not been processed.

As Rachel's account did not have sufficient funds to buy the winning ticket, the chance of acquiring their "dream house and dream car" was snatched away in a matter of moments.

Being overwhelmed with university work, the student from the University of Brighton failed to purchase a ticket.

She said: "I use those exact numbers every time, but this week I was stressed with uni work so completely forgot to buy a ticket."

Nevertheless, managing to maintain a positive outlook, Rachel stated: "Everything happens for a reason though, we're no richer or poorer than we were this morning."

"Hopefully it goes to someone who is in desperate need for it."

"Although it's sad, I think we'll get over it pretty quickly - not that he [Liam] was getting any of it anyway!"

In 2021, Liam, the boyfriend, also mentioned to The Sun: "I was absolutely heartbroken when we heard the man on the phone say we hadn't actually bought the ticket."

"I was already picturing our dream house and the dream car, I think I was getting a bit carried away to be fair."

"On the app it really made it look like we had won because it comes up in orange and it says winning match."

"When you looked at it and it was her usual numbers it just really looked like she had won and I got a bit carried away."

Rachel added: "We're absolutely not going to keep using those numbers now, I've already changed them."

"I've never won anything before, we've just got the worst luck when it comes to stuff like this."

Rachel, aged 19, expressed feeling too ashamed to share anything about the incident on social media, whereas Liam took to Twitter to share their misfortune and it quickly went viral.