Stephanie Girardi, an out-of-print book seller from Wilmette, Illinois, was a contestant on season 1 of the U.S. version of the show on February 15 & 17, 2000. She became the first woman to ever answer correctly the $500,000 in WWTBAM history, and got the chance to answer the $1 Million question, but decided to not answer it, walking away with half a million dollars.