A married couple from South Wales and a group of IT workers from Liverpool have won the £91 million EuroMillions jackpot, it emerged tonight.

The couple from Newport, who won £45 million, are the biggest ever lottery winners in the UK.

They now find themselves in the financial realms of celebrities such as Chris Evans, the Radio Two DJ, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, footballer Michael Owen and Sir Michael Caine. They will be flung into The Sunday Times Rich List — the first time that a lottery winner has made it onto the list.

The seven or eight Hewlett Packard workers will each get £5.5 million.

The winners have decided to go public after consultations with Camelot, who runs the National Lottery, and will give separate press conferences in Cardiff and Wirral tomorrow morning.

Some of the staff in the syndicate were unaware of their good fortune when they arrived for work as usual at BT's Royal House.

They were met by officials from Camelot and were taken to be given advice on how to handle such a big windfall.

One worker told The Liverpool Echo: "You can only imagine what it was like when it dawned on them. I’ve heard they just went mad – screaming and shouting. It’s been the talk of the building. No one can believe it. They are a very, very lucky bunch."

The winners are employed as sub-contractors by Hewlett Packard to do internal IT work and computer support.

It is thought that all but one of the syndicate members is from Merseyside.

When they face the media they will end the rife speculation surrounding their identity since it was announced that the winning tickets were both bought in Britain.

The holders of the winning tickets have to pass security checks before meeting with a private banker who handles the money transfer. Advisers will discuss how to deal with their new-found wealth.

They also advise winners on whether they should go public once the win is confirmed.

Around 25 per cent of winners opt for the publicity with the rest staying anonymous.

The three largest National Lottery prizes won in the UK so far are all from the EuroMillions game. They went to Angela Kelly, who won £35,425,411.80 in August 2007, an anonymous winner the same month who won £26,533,767.50, and Brian Caswell of Bolton, who won £24,951,269.40 in June.

They were followed by two winning tickets in the domestic game for £22,590,829, which was shared by Paul Maddison and Mark Gardiner, of Hastings, in June 1995, and £20,100,472, won by Iris Jeffrey, of Belfast, in July 2004.

Past winners sent their congratulations to the latest lottery multimillionaires.

Ms Kelly said: “I want to congratulate the lucky winners on taking my National Lottery title. My win has enabled me to bring a great deal of happiness to my friends and family, which has in turn made me very happy. I wish the new winners the best of luck.”

Mr Gardiner said: “I’d say to the winner, 'Enjoy yourself, do the one thing you have always wanted to do or buy, treat yourself with an impulse purchase and then take two steps back to let it all sink in'.”

The winning numbers were 11, 19, 34, 43 and 45. The Lucky Star numbers were 5 and 9.

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