Yellowknife couple who won $1M lottery say they’re ‘still Loy and Charlie’

Charlie and Loy Kudlak were buying a lottery ticket in Yellowknife when they found out they’d already won $1 million.

It was a Tuesday afternoon when the couple went out to purchase a ticket and decided to check the tickets they’d bought previously, just in case.

“I checked the ticket and bang, there was a million dollar ticket,” Charlie said.

He didn’t believe it at first.

“I jumped back and looked around to make sure nobody saw me.”

Still in disbelief, Charle went out to his vehicle where his wife was waiting for him.

“I said Loy, I think we won af–ing million dollars.”

“I didn’t believe him,” Loy said.

The news finally settled in after the couple came back the next day and were asked to fill out some paperwork to claim their win.

Loy said she told her family first, but word spread quickly.

“I told my sister first, and my sister told my other sister. And then I got like so many texts when I got home,” she said.

Charlie said he told his sister too, but asked her not to tell anyone because he still wasn’t convinced that it was real.

“I didn’t want anybody to get excited for something that wasn’t happening.”

Charlie said the couple plays the lottery “pretty much every draw.”

What to do with $1 million?

Both Charlie and Loy have been working multiple jobs over the last few years. Charlie said he’s working only one of those jobs now, which he’ll probably be able to continue doing after the lottery win.

For Loy, there’s a part of her house that she’s been waiting to get redone.

“I want to get my kitchen renovated and change the carpet,” Loy said. “That’s my main concern.”

Charlie also said he wants to make sure the house is in good shape.

As for how their lives will otherwise change with $1 million in the bank? Not much, they said.

“I think for both of us, it hasn’t really affected us, we’re still Loy and Charlie,” Charlie said.

“We say we’re not going to change anything,” Loy said.