A hotel manager who had ‘just one penny’ in her bank account has revealed how she won £1 million on a TV game show – after ‘manifesting a win’ under a full moon.
Sienna McSwiggan, 20, from Halesowen, West Midlands, appeared on ITV’s Win Win, hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, earlier this month and walked away with a seven-figure jackpot and a haul of other prizes.
The game requires contestants to guess how the British public have responded to survey questions, such as: ‘What is your favourite pizza topping?’ in order to win prizes such as cars and holidays. Viewers can also play along at home via an app and win the same prizes.
People playing from the sofa also have the chance to join the studio contestants on the next episode where they compete to go head-to-head on Millionaire’s Row – with one person guaranteed to walk away with £1 million in the final episode.
After playing via the app, Sienna landed a place on the show and secured the money along with a BMW 1 Series, a luxury trip to Orlando with £5,000 spending money, a holiday to Australia to see The Ashes, a five-star all-inclusive getaway to the Maldives, a new kitchen, Take That tickets and a trip to Monaco.
Now the young winner, who lives at home with her mother Lisa, insists her luck wasn’t down to chance, telling the Daily Mail: ‘I feel like I manifested it. As soon as I saw the show, I was already saying to my mum, “I need a financial adviser. I’m going to win this show”. Everyone laughed at me, but I just knew.’
Sienna practised manifestation by visualising her dreams and believing they would come true, and she even performed the ritual under a full moon.
Sienna McSwiggan from Halesowen, became a millionaire overnight after winning the million pound jackpot on the ITV game show Win Win
‘I went outside at midnight to manifest,’ she recalled. ‘My boyfriend thought I was crazy. But they say that’s the best time to do it, so that’s what I did.
‘I manifested getting on the show, I manifested every interview, every Zoom call. I knew from the start I was going to be on there.’
Describing her process, she said that she closed her eyes and visualised the future, doing her best to really ‘feel’ her big win.
‘I had to feel like I was going to win, see the money, feel it, hear it, hear how the crowd would react, just feel every emotion,’ she explained. ‘You’ve got to feel it really intensely.’
When the big moment came to appear on the show, Sienna says she felt calm even as the cameras rolled because she was holding a secret gift from her mother in the palm of her hand.
‘In the final, everyone was a bit confused about why I wasn’t clapping properly,’ she said. ‘It was because I was holding my mum’s necklace in my hand the whole time.’
The silver necklace, which features a small moon pendant, was a birthday gift from her mother in July.
‘The day before the final, I saw it sitting on my desk,’ she explained. ‘I was wearing a blue dress that night and the moon on the necklace matched it perfectly. It just felt right to have it with me. I held it all the way through.’
The former hotel manager, who admitted she had ‘a penny’ in her bank account, also walked away with a BMW 1 Series, a luxury trip to Orlando with £5,000 spending money, a holiday to Australia to see The Ashes, a five-star all-inclusive getaway to the Maldives, a new kitchen, Take That tickets and a trip to Monaco
Sienna applied online to be a contestant and played virtually at home before being invited into the studio.
The show features three rounds of five questions. Forty contestants have to correctly guess how members of the public answered survey questions.
Sienna explained: ‘Whoever is the quickest and gets the most questions right out the 40 contestants, get to go head-to-head on a leaderboard.’
Participants can win cars, holidays and tickets for sporting experiences, but they must decide whether or not to trade in their winnings and join Millionaire’s Row to be in with a chance to win the top prize.
Sienna had initially won a holiday to The Maldives which she traded in for a chance to go on Millionaire’s Row.
The final two contestants compete in a penalty-shoot-out style with five questions each.
The person with the most correct answers wins the jackpot of at least £1 million and they can also keep their other prizes, including all the luxury experiences up for grabs.
Sienna scooped her own jackpot after she correctly guessed that a swimming pool is the feature most Brits would add to their homes if they won the Lottery.
Now Sienna has been able to quit her job and says she feels like ‘she’s in a dream’.
Before going on the show, she was struggling to get by and would be down to her last penny before pay day.
‘I’ve not grown up with privileges,’ she said.
The new interactive quiz show with People’s Postcode Lottery, fronted by beloved presenting duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, has been keeping viewers hooked over the past five weeks as contestants battled it out for a coveted spot on the grand final’s Millionaire’s Row
Last month, Sienna (right) boldly turned down a luxury holiday to the Maldives, choosing instead to take a gamble for the ultimate jackpot
‘At my age, it’s so hard to decide what you want do in life. It’s difficult to even get on the property ladder.
‘I don’t have any savings. This will help so much.’
Selflessly, Sienna is sharing much of her success with those closest to her, choosing to give away many of her prizes to family members.
She explained that she is giving the trip to watch the Ashes to her grandfather and uncle, the Orlando trip to her brother, and the Monaco trip to her father.
However, she’s keeping one special prize for herself and taking her mother and grandmother to the Maldives for what she called a ‘chilled girlie holiday.’
Speaking of the moment she won the prize, she recalled: ‘It just didn’t feel real. I was so excited, but more for my mum and my nan than for myself. I couldn’t wait to tell them.’
A heartwarming video of the moment she shared the news with her family has since gone viral online gaining more than 145,000 views.
‘My mum was jumping up and down in the living room,’ Sienna recalled.
‘My nan actually looked ill, she just went blank! Nothing like this ever happens to us.
‘My nan goes up the Bingo every weekend and doesn’t win a penny.’
Selflessly, Sienna is sharing much of her success with those closest to her, choosing to give away many of her prizes to family members
Now officially a millionaire, Sienna has quit her job and plans to use her winnings to buy her mother a house as thanks for the sacrifices she’s made for her family.
She reflected fondly on her childhood, describing how her mother chose not to pursue her own career so she could dedicate her time to raising Sienna and her younger brother Shay.
‘She took us out every single day, she took us to the parks. Obviously we couldn’t do anything that was of cost, but she made sure that me and Shay had such a good upbringing,’ Sienna explained.
‘She would play board games with us and she would cook with us. She didn’t drive, so we’d literally walk everywhere. She did everything for us – I can’t even tell you.’
Sienna revealed she knew she had a different upbringing to her friends, saying she lived in a smaller house, didn’t have ‘expensive shoes or clothes’ and went on holiday’s that weren’t as lavish as her peers.
She added: ‘It was very different, but my mum, she did so much for us and to be honest having a mum like that makes you feel rich anyway.’
Sienna said being able to finally give something back to her mother by buying her ‘a cute house’ means the world to her.
‘She literally hasn’t stopped crying. She’s still crying, she’s literally over the moon,’ she said.
Sienna also hopes to invest for the future, and start her own business, although she is not sure what business to get into just yet, saying she enjoys photography. She would also love to write a book on manifesting.
But she admitted she’s allowing herself one indulgence first, a pink Mercedes.
Since the big win, Sienna hasn’t spent much of her money, she is enjoying her free days, going on shopping trips with her mother but claimed she’s afraid to ‘waste’ the money.
‘I’ve been doing normal things. I mean, we’ve been doing pumpkin carving, playing board games, we haven’t been doing anything really, outrageous with the money.’
