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Powerball Winners Of $1.58 Billion Jackpot On ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ [Video]

By Charisse Van Horn
Published on: 07:42 PST, Jan 28, 2016

The winners of the record-breaking, $1.58 billion Powerball jackpot appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Wednesday to talk about their amazing win. Lisa and John Robinson purchased one of three winning Powerball tickets for the January 13, 2016, jackpot that sparked Powerball fever across the nation.

The Robinsons are from Munford, Tennessee, and have stated they want to keep their lives as close to normal as possible. The other winning tickets were sold in California and Florida. As of this writing, the other jackpot winners have yet to come forward. Only Lisa and John Robinson have spoken about their epic win, and their down-to-earth story has resonated with many across the nation. The couple are hardworking and have no plans to use the money to radically change their lifestyle. They also plan to keep their jobs and use the money wisely. You can watch the video of Lisa and John Robinson as the appeared on Ellen in the video player below.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Robinson’s Powerball win is that it almost didn’t happen. John Robinson spoke to Today shortly after purchasing the winning Powerball ticket to explain that he hadn’t been feeling well and wasn’t planning to stop off and buy a few tickets for the billion dollar jackpot on his way home. John Robinson explained how he came to purchase the Powerball tickets to Today.

“Actually I was on way home from work, and she had called me and said, ‘Are you going to stop and get a couple lottery tickets?” John said. “I really didn’t feel like stopping that night, but I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll stop.’ I came home, and I wasn’t feeling good, and I handed the tickets to her and said, ‘I’m going to go lay down.'”

While on Ellen, DeGeneres asked the lucky couple how they came to purchase the ticket. John Robinson spoke first. While saying he purchased the ticket, his wife Lisa interjected that it was at her request. He explained how it happened.

“I was on my way home from work, she called me and said, ‘Would I stop and get a couple of lottery tickets?’ John explained, “I really don’t feel like stopping, I didn’t feel good.”

Ellen then asked the couple if they normally play the lottery or Powerball, and John responded that they only play when the lottery is huge. The couple isn’t alone in that aspect, as many people choose to only play the lottery, Mega Millions, or Powerball when the jackpot rolls over to hundreds of millions or, in this case, billions of dollars.

Continuing, John Robinson explained how he came to pick the winning Powerball numbers.

“I stopped at the store and I just went in there and told the lady I want four quick-pick tickets, got the tickets, came home and I handed them to her [Lisa], told her I don’t feel good so I’m fixin’ [sic] to go lay down.”

Another fascinating aspect of the Robinson’s Powerball jackpot win is that they did not choose the winning numbers by themselves but opted for the Quick Pick choice. The Hoosier Lottery explains how to play Powerball and includes a section of the Quick Pick. You can see an instructional video on how to play Powerball in the video below.

https://youtu.be/3nq5ApEqeW4

While many lottery and Powerball experts recommend that people pick and choose their own numbers, it can’t go without notice that the winning numbers for the largest Powerball jackpot in history were selected by a computer during a random Quick Pick.

Lisa and John Robinson then told Ellen how they discovered they were Powerball jackpot winners. John Robinson explained he went to rest and was feeling hot so had a cloth on his head. Lisa shared how she watched the drawing on her local station and wrote the Powerball winning numbers down so she could compare her tickets with the draw results. To her amazement, her Powerball ticket matched the winning numbers.

Lisa explained her reaction to matching the Powerball winning numbers to Ellen.

“I watched it at 10:00, when they gave out the numbers. I wrote them down, because I knew if I didn’t write them down, I’d forget the numbers. So I write them down, I start looking at the tickets, I get to the third one, and I was like…’Okay, this number matches… this number matches. The closer I got to the Powerball number I was like, oh my gosh, these numbers are matching up.’ So I took my finger and hit the number on the paper and the number on the ticket, paper… ticket… I was like… oh my gosh, these match.”

Lisa said she knew her sleeping husband was going to freak out, but she went running down the hallway calling his name to share the incredible news. John said he checked the Powerball numbers four times but wanted to wait until morning to make sure that a winning Powerball ticket had been sold in Munford, Tennessee. The couple didn’t get a wink of sleep all night, and by morning it was confirmed that a winning Powerball jackpot ticket had been sold in Munford, letting them unofficially know they were, in fact, the winners. Lisa Robinson described the experience of being a Powerball jackpot winner as overwhelming.

There were three Powerball winners in the January 13, 2016, drawing. There hasn’t been another jackpot winner since January 13, and the Powerball jackpot has continued to roll. The next scheduled drawing is set for January 30, 2016, and is currently for $96 million.

[Photo by Mark Humphrey/AP]

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