If there is only one winner of Friday night’s enormous $1.28 billion Mega Millions lottery, they would be richer than many of the country’s most well-known celebrities and performers, some of whom have spent years building their own fortunes.
Singer Beyoncé (estimated net worth $450 million), tennis champions Serena Williams ($260 million) and Maria Sharapova ($220 million), actress Sandra Bullock ($225 million), and mom-ager Kris Jenner ($230 million) are some of the people who will lose out to the Mega Millions Millionaire.
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Nevertheless, despite the proclaimed payout, the winner won’t be a billionaire. The majority of lottery winners choose the lump sum cash reward, or “cash option,” which as of Friday at noon Eastern time, Mega Millions reported to be $747.2 million. After paying federal taxes on the winnings, the winner would have around $470 million left over. (There can be additional state taxes, depending on the state where the winner resides.)
The victor would be even wealthier than Dolly Parton, who has performed and risen up the ranks for more than five decades, with a $470 million net worth. She is wealthy, according to Forbes, $375 million. (These net worths are from Forbes’ 2022 ranking of the wealthiest self-made women in America, which was released in June.) The winner’s wealth would be just $10 million less than that of Judge Judy, a former New York Family Court judge who currently hosts the show “Judy Justice” on Amazon’s Freevee. Judge Judy led a daily court show on television for 25 years.
Whoever it is, though, would still fall short of Kylie Jenner ($600 million), Madonna ($575 million), or Taylor Swift ($570 million), at least for the time being.
As the jackpot has increased in size, one thing has changed: more people are now likely to be the winners, as my colleague William Baldwin explains in this article. And who knows how many friends and family members will knock on the winner’s door demanding a piece of the winnings. Oral agreements around lottery winners have been the subject of legal proceedings; hence, even solitary winners may be required to contribute.
The formula is slightly different if the winner chooses to accept the yearly dividend (30 installments over 29 years). According to calculations by USAMega.com, the annual dividend would be around $42.7 million before taxes and $26.9 million after paying federal taxes. The winner’s net worth over three decades would depend on what they do with that money each year, including whether they invest it, give away a lot of it, or spend lavishly every day. After 30 years, they would have slightly over $800 million if they simply kept the money and lived off the investment returns (and didn’t have to pay state taxes).
They would be wealthier as a result than many of the famous people on Forbes’ list of self-made women. Not all of them, though; Rihanna ($1.4 billion), Kim Kardashian ($1.8 billion), and Oprah Winfrey ($2.6 billion) all have more money now.
