Denise Rossi admitted hiding the money because she didn't want her husband to have any of her winnings.

The BBC's Duncan Kennedy: "She didn't want him to get his hands on it"

Thomas Rossi only found out she'd won by accident when he opened a letter addressed to her.

The pair had been married for 25 years.

According to him, theirs was a happy relationship, but she told the superior court in Los Angeles that she was looking for a way out, because he was always broke and she was always working.

Three years ago, they started divorce proceedings, but 11 days before they were finalised, Mrs Rossi and five co-workers at her clothing design firm won $6.6m in the California State lottery. Mrs Rossi's share was $1.3m.

Under California State law, her spouse was entitled to half of the jackpot, but instead, she said nothing to her husband and had the money mailed to her mother's address.

Hands off

Mrs Rossi, who claims she didn't know the law, said in court papers that she hid the money because she didn't want him to "get his hands on it".

Mr Rossi only discovered the money two years later when a letter from a lottery winner's advice company arrived for his ex-wife.

The letter said that the company had "helped hundreds of lottery winners like you around the country receive a lump sum payment for the present value of their future annual lottery payments".

Mr Rossi's attorney, Mark Lerner, said: "I think he scratched his head for a while, saying: 'What? This can't be'."

The jilted husband immediately obtained an injunction stopping her use of the money.

He said his shaky finances after the divorce made his former wife's secret "even more despicable".

The court ruled that all the money should be paid to Mr Rossi, in annual instalments of $66,800 for the next 20 years.