Patricia Daly Eisel Won The Lottery - Her Ex-Husband Wants His Fair Share

You need to be careful if you win the lottery and you have an ex lurking around. They may want to take "their fair share." Patricia Daly Eisel can attest to that.

In January of 2011, Patricia Daly Eisel won $21.5 million from the New York Lottery. Winning the lottery feels awesome, but it must have been doubly awesome for her. That's because a year prior to winning, her husband, Jamie Eisel, left her. But he didn't just leave her, he left their three kids too. So, in the meantime, she was working two jobs to make ends meet and provide for her kids. Then the lottery win came and she was finally able to relax and forgot about her financial worries.

Life should have been good for Patricia Daly Eisel from there on in, and I'm sure it was. But then, her ex-husband comes along and decides that he wants some money too. He wants his "fair share." See, they were actually still married at the time of her win. To him, it didn't matter that he left her and her three kids to fend for themselves. To top it all off, he was already in a relationship with another woman at the time of Patricia's win. But he still wanted his own payday.

Now, Jamie has taken a restraining order against Patricia, preventing her from spending the money until they go to court. The case is scheduled to go to court on September 13th.

Patricia offered Jamie $1 million to settle out-of-court, plus no obligation to pay child support ever again. That just wasn't enough for Jamie.

Patricia Daly Eisel's $21.5 million win was a stroke of luck in the first place. She moved to the United States, from Ireland, over 15 years ago. During Christmas time, 2010, she had a plane ticket to go to Ireland to visit her family back home. There was a huge snow storm during her departure day and the flight got delayed. Since she had hours to spare, she had to keep herself busy at the airport. That's when she bought a lottery ticket, the ticket that she won on. Had it not been for the snowstorm, Patricia never would have won.

Here's to hoping that Patricia wins again, this time in court!