A DAD has told how he won a “life-changing” £50,000 on an ITV game show – and was forced to keep it a secret for a YEAR.
Rob Franks, 44, took home the whopping sum after competing in Gary Lineker’s Sitting on a Fortune.
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The programme fronted by the football legend sees contestants line-up in a row of chairs one behind the other.
Rob bet six contestants to the prize after correctly guessing which celebrity listed knitting as one of his hobbies.
But after trousering the £50,000 prize he had to remain tight-lipped for a year while waiting for the show to air.
Rob, from Poole, Dorset, told The Sun: “It was filmed in May 2022 – a year ago.
“It aired on Sunday so for that whole year I had to keep the fact that I had won this money a secret.
“I couldn’t tell anyone. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
“I could tell my wife but I couldn’t tell anyone else. None of my friends or family knew – including my two children.
“It was bonkers to think I was sitting on this money.”
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During the last year, Rob and his wife spent some of the dosh – while trying to fly under the radar.
He explained: “You get the money 90 days after filming so I have had the money for all this time.
“So because of this huge secret, we had to be very surreptitious about how we spent the money.
“We bought a secondhand car – a Renault – and a couple of weeks later we bought another.
“If anyone asked we just told them that we had saved up some money so no one was suspicious.
“It was hard going having to tell some fibs.
“The main way we spent our money was paying off some debts that had built up over Covid times.
“It has completely changed our lives. It is a huge weight off our shoulders.”
Rob, who has been capped six times for England disability Cricket, also chose to donate some money to charities close to his heart.
He had a bone tumour removed from his left leg in 2011 after it was spotted when he was hospitalised with a sports injury.
After the operation, he left with permanent nerve damage, which meant he struggled to get around and having to use crutches and a wheelchair.
Facing a life on painkillers, in late 2017 Rob decided to crowdfund to voluntarily have his leg amputated, and underwent the procedure in 2018.
Rob had been playing a cricket game on Sunday when the show aired – and afterwards found his phone flooded with messages from his shocked friends.
He explained: “I knew the show was coming out and I told my friends it would be on TV but I wasn’t watching it myself.
“My phone was going loopy once it aired. I must have had about 150 messages.
“They were all so shocked. It was so bizarre.
“When I got home after my game and I did watch it, it was mental.
“Even though it was me on the TV and I knew what had happened I was on the edge of my seat.
“I was just overcome with emotion and I just still can’t believe how lucky I was.
“It’s the only lucky thing that has ever happened to me – except for meeting my wife.”
