Lottery winner spends $9m on bailing out fiancee accused of heroin trafficking

Marie Holmes won $188m in the lottery in February

Maire Holmes defended her decision to get her boyfriend out of jail on Facebook (Youtube)

A lottery winner in America is reported to have spent $9m bailing out her fiancee out of jail-twice.

Marie Holmes, from North Carolina, won a reported $188m on the Powerball draw back in February and received $88m after taxes and charges were applied.

She said at the time she wanted to make sure her children never worried about their futures, buy a nice home and donate some money to charity.

But eyebrows were raised last week when it was reported that she had spent $6m on bailing out her boyfriend, Lamarr McDow, after he was arraigned for allegedly violating curfew requirements on his pre-trial release.

It then emerged she had previously spent $3m on his bail back in March when he was originally arrested on suspicion of heroin trafficking charges last year, according to local news channel WWAY3.

The mother of four, who worked two jobs to support her family before she won, defended herself against the criticism on WWAY3’s Facebook page saying: “What Y’all [sic] need to be worried about is Y’all money and not how I spend mine this is benefiting Y’all how?

"And no he’s no drug dealer or user but who are Y’all to judge anybody? I will definitely pray for Y’all because it’s much need…they talked about Jesus so I’m not surprised Y’all are talking about me but be blessed though.”