Despite winning over N106million in “Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire?” woman dies penniless

Sixty-one year old, Marlene Grabherr, won one million German Mark (about N106, 531, 000) in the German version of the hit quiz show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire” in May 2001. The woman, now 61, has died penniless. 

She was a 48-year-old housewife when she won the jackpot. But by 2010, she admitted being broke. She reportedly told Germany’s Bild newspaper then that "Nothing is left. Only the house that we have built. My husband Edgar and I have to see how we will make ends meet."

She later claimed that the money ruined her life and destroyed her family.

According to her, her siblings became exceedingly greedy and demanded more money despite that fact that she spent a fortune loaning them money, buying them cars and taking them on holiday trips abroad.

After all that, her husband left her and she later fell seriously sick. She died while waiting to receive treatment for a tumour in her mouth.

A Daily Express UK report has it that before her death, she had also become obese and “living in poverty and seclusion in the small town of of Gailingen, south west Germany.

The medium quotes her neighbour Frank Kirsch, 34, as saying: "I had no idea who she was until I read a small piece in the local paper about her saying she was the first female winner of the show and that she had died.

"I had seen her around but she very much kept herself to herself."

Marlene Grabherr, on th show that year. Pic: Express UK

“Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire” is a popular International TV quiz show franchise that originated in Britain in 1998. Several countries across the world now have their own versions. In Germany it is called “Wer wird Millionär?” hosted by Guenther Jauch.

In Nigeria, it is hosted by Frank Edoho