Tiffani Edwards tells INSIDE EDITION the story of her father who won the lotto and blew the multi-million dollar fortune.
Tiffani Edwards is trying to make ends meet living in a cramped home. It's hard to believe that she once lived in a lavish mansion.
She told INSIDE EDITION, “I felt like Cinderella.”
So how did she go from riches to rags?
“My daddy turned a dollar into $27 million, but lost it,” she said.
Watch INSIDE EDITION's Interview with Tiffani
Her father, Dave Edwards, won $41 million in the Powerball jackpot. He opted for a $27 million lump payment. With his overnight riches, the out-of-work cable installer went on a wild spending spree. It was as if he couldn't help himself. His extravagance was featured on a Discovery Channel special in 2005.
Tiffani said, “He went crazy buying everything. Anything his heart desired.”
Tiffani remembers moving overnight from a modest little home in Ashland, Kentucky to the 6,000-square-foot mansion in Palm Beach, on the Florida Gold Coast.
“It was like a castle when I walked in. Like, I was walking into a castle,” she said.
An opulent castle that was straight out of a fairytale. It was filled with antiques like $80,000 china from Russia, and crystal everywhere.
Her dad filled the castle with 200 pieces of antique medieval armor. He bought a $2 million Learjet.
She said, “My dad had the pilot on speed dial, so he could call him and gas up the jet and send me wherever we wanted to go.”
Her father spent his fortune like it would last forever. Tiffani believed her future was secure.
“He told everyone and me included, he put $1 million in a trust fund for my future,” she said.
So, it came as a shock to Tiffani when, last November, Dave Edwards’s life in the fast lane came to a sudden end. He died at the age of 58. And at the time of death he was flat broke. Just 12 years after winning $41 million, he was penniless.
She said, “He cried to me, apologizing about the way things ended. He blew it all.”
He even lost his childhood home. A tearful Tiffani said, “It was very hard.”
Tiffani says her dad gave bundles of cash to charity. Bad business investments gobbled up millions.
“His big heart was his downfall,” she said.
The rest was foolishly squandered. The fortune is all gone, except for a birthstone ring. She said, “It’s the only thing I have left from all the money.”
Tiffani couldn’t even afford to bury her dad. His ashes are contained in a tin box. The 26-year-old mother of three certainly misses her once fabulous lifestyle but has found happiness with her family.
She said, “Im very rich with love and that's all I need.”
Like father, like daughter, Tiffani plays the lottery because you never know when luck will strike twice.
“I would put it in the bank for me and my kids, not blow it,” she said.
