Most people dream about winning the lottery.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Very few do it just months after finalising a divorce settlement that still requires their ex-wife to financially support them.
But that’s exactly what happened to Mike Weirsky, whose extraordinary story continues resurfacing online years later because of just how unbelievable the timing was.
Back in 2019, Weirsky landed a staggering $273,000,000 Mega Millions jackpot only five months after ending his 15-year marriage to Eileen Murray, Parade reports.
And yes — she was still paying him alimony when it happened.
During their marriage, Murray had reportedly been the primary breadwinner while Weirsky struggled to maintain steady employment.
According to interviews given at the time, Weirsky largely stayed home and looked after the dog while Murray worked for a utilities company supporting the household financially.
When the marriage officially ended in October 2018, the court ordered Murray to continue paying spousal support to her ex-husband for five years due to his financial dependence during the relationship.
Neither side could possibly have predicted what happened next.
Just months later, Weirsky purchased a $10 Mega Millions ticket at a QuickChek store near the New Jersey–Pennsylvania border — the same convenience store where he had once proposed to Murray years earlier.
The story nearly took another unbelievable twist after Weirsky accidentally left the ticket behind on the counter after becoming distracted by his phone.
Fortunately for him, store employee Phil Campolo handed the ticket in rather than keeping it.
“My parents raised me to be a good person – honest and sincere. I was the doing the right thing and I would do it again,” Campolo later explained to NBC News.
Two nights later, Weirsky checked the numbers and realised he had become one of America’s newest multimillionaires.
After taxes, he reportedly took home a lump sum payment of around $162.5 million.
His first major purchase? A Ford Raptor.
Meanwhile, Murray suddenly found herself in the surreal position of continuing to pay alimony to a man who was now vastly wealthier than she was.
Speaking to Inside Edition after the jackpot win, she admitted the situation felt bizarre.
“To him, [the alimony] is pocket change at this point,” she said. “Think about the amount of money that he has just won. What I’m paying him is a pittance.”
Despite the awkward situation, Murray repeatedly stressed that she had no intention of trying to claim part of the winnings for herself.
“I don’t want anyone to misconstrue that I’m coming after him,” she said.
She later added: “I’m not going after anything. I have morals. I know what I’ve worked for and it’s everything that I have.”
Murray did, however, say she hoped the court would terminate the ongoing support payments.
“The only thing I would like to see is obviously termination of spousal support,” she explained.
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her either, particularly considering where the winning ticket had been purchased.
“He proposed to me at that QuickChek,” she recalled. “I’m his good luck charm.”
Despite the life-changing jackpot, Murray made it very clear that the money itself wasn’t enough to rekindle the relationship.
“Now that you have money, it doesn’t mean that I would want to come back,” she said.
Online, the story has continued generating strong reactions for years.
Some people viewed Weirsky as incredibly fortunate, both for winning the lottery and for still receiving alimony at the time.
“He won twice!” one person joked online.
Others argued Murray deserved recognition for financially supporting him throughout their marriage before the jackpot ever happened.
“It would be a nice idea to gift her a little $$ money to make her life a little easier,” one commenter wrote.
Another added: “She did support him throughout the marriage.”
A third person agreed, writing: “I’d still give her a few mil for supporting him all those years and move on.”
Even after becoming enormously wealthy, Weirsky himself acknowledged that none of it would have happened without the honesty of the store clerk who returned the ticket.
“I wouldn’t have $273million if it wasn’t for him,” he said.
Years later, the story still feels almost too ridiculous to be real — which is exactly why people continue talking about it.
Featured image credit: YouTube/InsideEdition (screenshots)
