Judith Keppel: a question that changed my life Judith Keppel was the first contestant to win £1m on the ITV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in November 2000. The programme aired for the final time this week. Since 2003 she has been a panellist on BBC2"s Eggheads, competing with four other quiz champions against teams of challengers. She is a distant cousin of Camilla Parker Bowles; the younger brother of her great-grandfather, the Earl of Albemarle, was married to Alice Keppel, mistress of King Edward VII and great-grandmother to the Duchess of Cornwall. Judith Keppel CV Born: Wolverhampton, 1942 Education: Various schools, culminating in St Mary's, Wantage, Oxfordshire Career: worked for a publisher and an art gallery before becoming engaged to her first husband, art dealer Desmond Corcoran. Was in the process of training to become a garden designer when she won the £1m Lives: Kensington and Albi, France. Divorced, with three children and five grandchildren I did not think I would win Millionaire, which was the only quiz I had ever done. It took 15 questions to get up to £1m, and each has a choice of four answers. I really did not expect to win a million. I thought the questions seemed quite easy, and it would be nice to walk away with £30,000 or £60,000. I did no preparation, which seems unbelievable! I just thought I would get into a muddle if I revised. The million-pound question, "Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine married to?" was extraordinary. I knew the answer because I had been in France just a couple of months before. I had stayed at Fontrevaud, a little town with a large abbey church that had been restored and was now empty except for four tombs. Eleanor of Aquitaine was lying next to her husband, Henry II, and in front of them lay her son Richard I and his wife. It must have been meant for me to go there. I had studied Henry II at school for A-level history but I probably would not have remembered the name of his wife. When you won £1m did it change your life? I think it has hugely broadened my life, and given me much more than money. I was in total shock when I won. I was stunned. My immediate feeling was huge relief because I was rather skint. I had just finished doing a garden design course and needed to find some work. But the main benefit was getting on to Eggheads three years later, when I was 61. Winning the money has made me relax and improved the quality of my life, because I bought this lovely house in France, where I spend half the year. It has given me a freedom not to have to think too hard every time I spend any money. Without the win I really would have been pushed. I would probably own one property and be taking in lodgers. I bought a new car, then I was very busy for 18 months, opening fetes, and flower shows and shops and giving talks and so on, for which I never took any fees. I felt I had been so lucky. I could not possibly ask for more money, but I did get expenses. Then I wrote a quiz book. It was just great fun. I was able to live off the interest from £1m, which was enough, as interest rates were still quite high then. It was a temporary arrangement for a few months until the money was properly invested and producing an income. Frankly, I think it is luck. I did not plan my life in any way. You never know what is going to happen next, like Eggheads suddenly coming along. At one time we were doing about 160 shows a year. We are doing rather fewer now. Three of the panellists are Mastermind winners, and four have been Brain of Britain. I now do revision. I read the papers carefully, including the dreaded sports pages. Sport is a big gap in my knowledge. I try to learn a bit of science because I have never had a science lesson in my life. Do you have time for personal financial planning? Not really, no. I don't know about finance. I don't trust myself. I have a financial adviser and I meet him three times a year to discuss my investments. I paid the million pound cheque into RBS, who recommended Drummonds, their private bank in Charing Cross that was well set up to help people who had won the Lottery or had unexpected windfalls. With hindsight I should have used the entire million to buy property in London, as it would have gone up spectacularly in the last 13 years. Well I would like to go on with Eggheads until it finishes. It is fun to do, and it is very nice at my age to have a job. It is a focus in my life. I think I am the oldest one on the panel now. Not really. I don't seem to qualify for a state pension because I did not work for long enough, and though married to my first husband for 16 years, it was apparently not long enough to qualify. I don't have a private pension or an annuity. What is your commitment to charity? I have been on the committee of RAPt, the Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust, since it was set up in the 1990s, as I knew the founder, Jonathan Wallace. After Millionaire I have supported them by writing quizzes for their annual quiz night. Not in a major way, though after the win I did go and buy myself a brand new Audi A3. I am now on my fourth, they are such good cars. The other indulgence is taking my grandchildren out to lunch, especially to Bellamy's, behind Bruton Street. Gavin Rankin, who runs it, is now a friend of the family. I also buy a lot of costume jewellery, in particular necklaces and earrings to wear on Eggheads. I did do up my four-bedroom house in Fulham and I extended the kitchen. I bought the house in France then sold the place in Fulham and bought this flat in Kensington. Before Millionaire I had been thinking of living in France because I was so broke, and property there was much cheaper. As far as possible, yes. I would like to leave everything to my children and grandchildren. What they inherit will not spoil them, but help them. The win was enough to change my life but not the lives of my entire family. Your most prudent investment? The investment with the highest yield is my flat in Kensington that I bought in 2005. I have not had it valued, but I rent the place out when I spend the summer in France.