Rob Dunlap, one of Whittaker's many attorneys, said Whittaker has spent at least $3 million dollars fending off lawsuits. He enjoyed years of success with few complaints, but less than a year after winning the lottery things began to change. 'And Brandi waved at me on the first sonogram, so I was hooked then.'īy the time Whittaker won the lottery, he said, he was doing $16 million to $17 million worth of work. 'I was with my daughter going to her doctor's visits,' he said. Whittaker said it was the birth of his granddaughter that finally changed his obsession with work.
We didn't have a TV until later in life.'Īt the age of 14, Whittaker met the woman who would become his wife, and started his own construction company. 'I grew up very, very poor in Jumping Branch, W.Va.,' said Whittaker.
'I mean, we went to a ballgame, a basketball game … and we must have had 150 people come up to us … and it would be going right back to asking for money.'įor a man who didn't start out with much, the experience was a bit overwhelming. 'Any place that I would go they would come up,' he said. Suddenly, the man who won a fortune at Christmas had become everybody's Santa Claus. Whittaker gave away at least $50 million worth of houses, cars and cash. Jill says the foundation received all kinds of requests, such as, 'people wanting new carpet, people wanting entertainment systems, people wanting Hummers, people wanting houses - just absolutely bizarre things.'
