Billionaire heiress set to be Downing Street’s next ‘first lady’: Former fashion designer Akshata Murthy faced a backlash over her tax affairs – and Mrs Sunak is ‘richer than the King’ thanks to her father’s IT empire
- Billionaire heiress and husband Rishi Sunak have joint fortune of £730 million
- Rishi will be crowned new Conservative Party leader and prime minister today
- Akshata Murthy met her husband at Stanford and the pair married in 2009
- Mother-of-two came under fire for her ‘non-dom’ tax status earlier this year
10 Downing Street has been home to many prime ministers and their partners – but the couple moving in at the end of this week, Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murthy, are set to be the wealthiest SW1A has ever seen.
Samantha Cameron, wife of former prime minister David and the UK’s ‘first lady’ from 2010 to 2016, made headlines during her spell in Number 10 for the enormous fortune she was set to inherit.
But billionaire heiress Akshata, 42, is said to be wealthier than the King due to her £430 million stake in her father’s IT empire.
Rishi, also 42, his wife and their daughters Krishna and Anoushka will be the first Hindu family to occupy the prime ministerial home.
The former chancellor has had something of a meteoric rise in the seven years since he first became an MP, and now Akshata is the new ‘first lady’ of the UK with her own fortune – and a chic wardrobe – to boot.
And, having faced scrutiny for her non-dom tax status in the last year, she is no stranger to the attention that comes with being the prime minister’s wife – while Rishi himself has given voters glimpses into their private life and the things they bicker about.
The billionaire heiress is the daughter of Indian IT mogul Narayana Murthy who owns Bangalore-based Infosys.
Akshata Murthy, 42, with Rishi Sunak, also 42, who she has been married to since 2009 after the pair met at Stanford University. The billionaire heiress looks set to move into 10 Downing Street this week as her husband races ahead in the Conservative Party leadership contest
The couple have a combined fortune of £730 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List
Akshata, who is known for her love of designer items, is seen handing cups of tea to members of the Press following her husband’s resignation as chancellor in July
The couple have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka (pictured with their parents at Rishi’s campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party in July)
Together, the Sunaks have a combined fortune of £730 million, the Sunday Times Rich List revealed in May.
In an interview with The Times in August, as he languished behind Liz Truss in the first Tory leadership contest, Rishi gave voters an insight into his marriage.
He told the newspaper: ‘My family all drink, my wife definitely drinks. It massively irritates her that I don’t.’
The former chancellor added he was finally persuaded to have a few shots shortly before his wedding in India in 2009, but admitted he didn’t like the taste.
Rishi added there are several other ways in which the couple are like chalk and cheese – with housekeeping being their biggest difference.
Akshata has previously raised eyebrows with her high-end wardrobe. She wears a box-fresh pair of £445 Gucci trainers, a REDValentino shearling and leather coat costing £1,630 and a leather skirt worth more then £1,000, for a date night with her husband in Mayfair in 2020
‘I’m incredibly tidy, she’s very messy,’ he said. ‘I’m much more organised, she is more spontaneous… she is not going to love me for saying this but I’ll be honest with you, she is not big on the whole tidying thing. She is a total nightmare, clothes everywhere… and shoes… oh God, shoes.’
Akshata, a former fashion designer, and her brother Rohan were largely raised by their paternal grandparents while their ambitious mother and father pursued careers in engineering and science.
While her father Narayana went on to found Infosys and build his fortune, Akshata’s mother Sudha became the first female engineer to work for India’s biggest car manufacturer TELCO.
She had a passion for fashion from an early age and has recalled how her mother scolded her for paying more attention to glamour than she did her studies.
After finishing school, Akshata moved to the US, where she completed degrees in economics and French at Claremont McKenna College in California and at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in LA.
It was when she moved to Stanford University to study for an MBA that she met her husband Rishi, who was studying at the top college after being granted a Fulbright scholarship.
Rishi recently admitted there was ‘clearly something’ there when he and Akshata first met – and added he is an enormous fan of rom-coms, prompting him to change some of his classes so that he could sit next to his wife.
Four years later, in 2009, they married in a lavish ceremony in Bengaluru in India, which was the couple’s home for the next four years.
Family fun! Rishi and Akshata take part in a Christmas run with their young daughters, dressing up as Santa for the occasion
Tory blue: Akshata, the daughter of billionaire Indian IT mogul Narayana Murthy, donned a £165 dress by High Street label Club Monaco for the outing to Margaret Thatcher’s hometown of Grantham. Pictured: She and Rishi are joined by their daughters on the campaign trail in July
During their early years together, Akshata pursued a career in fashion and set up her own business in 2007, Akshata Designs, based on celebrating Indian culture, discovering artists in remote villages and working with them and their designs to create her own.
‘I’m about the story behind a particular garment, it’s authenticity, craftsmanship and protecting a rich heritage,’ she told Vogue. ‘I care about doing something in India, for India because it’s part of our family’s DNA.’
However, her business venture fell flat and collapsed after just three years.
Nonetheless, the mother of two has continued to hold stakes in businesses over the years – including the family empire, Infosys and a project she and Rishi set up together, Catamaran Ventures UK. She has also been linked to Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria and Etonian tailor, New & Lingwood.
Murthy’s Millions: Akshata’s family business portfolio
- Combined shareholding in tech firm Infosys worth £1.7billion
- Joint venture with Amazon, Cloudtail, in India worth £900m a year
- Shareholding in UK firm which runs Jamie’s Italian restaurants and burger chain Wendy’s in India
- Also holds shares in Koru Kids and is director of Digme Fitness
- Akshata is a shareholder or director in five other UK companies, including Mayfair outfitter which makes Eton College pupils’ tailcoats costing £2,500 each
- Akshata is also listed as a director of the UK arm of software company, Soroco, co-founded by her brother
- Investment firm Catamaran Ventures owned by father Narayana Murthy
- She runs fashion label Akshata Designs
Eventually Rishi and Akshata moved to the UK in 2013, where Rishi became MP for Richmond in Yorkshire two years later.
The couple now live in a £7 million townhouse in Kensington with their daughters, which is just one of several properties they own.
As well as the townhouse, they also enjoy a £1million flat in Kensington and a £2million mansion in Rishi’s Yorkshire constituency, where he is nicknamed the ‘Maharaja of the Dales’. They also have a £5.5million penthouse in California, overlooking Santa Monica pier, which they use in the holidays.
Although not an elected politician herself, Akshata has become the subject of public scrutiny on more than one occasion – both in relation to her fortune and her fashion choices.
Earlier this year she made headlines for her non-domicile (‘non-dom’) tax status, which is a legal way to avoid paying taxes in Britain on overseas income. The status is often used by the super-wealthy to save thousands or even millions of pounds in tax.
It is thought the bulk of Akshata’s wealth comes from Infosys, which is based in Bangalore.
After the tax revelation was revealed, the couple faced intense backlash – which led to Akshata ultimately giving up her non-dom status and promising to pay tax in the UK on the fortunes she brought in from around the world.
She released a statement defending her ‘entirely legal’ arrangement, but ultimately conceded to give up the status.
The statement read: ‘It has become clear that many do not feel it is compatible with my husband’s role as Chancellor.
‘I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family.
‘This means I will now pay UK tax on an arising basis on all my worldwide income, including dividends and capital gains, wherever in the world that income arises. I do this because I want to, not because the rules require me to.’
As well as her tax status, the mother of two has also raised eyebrows with her wardrobe, after stepping out on occasion in outfits worth thousands of pounds.
In December 2020, the IT heiress wore a box-fresh pair of £445 Gucci trainers, a REDValentino shearling and leather coat costing £1,630 and a leather skirt worth more then £1,000, for a date night with her husband in upmarket Mayfair.
However, during Rishi’s first leadership campaign in the summer of 2022 – in which he lost out to Liz Truss – Akshata stepped out in a High-Street outfit at a campaign event for her husband.
She donned a £165 dress by high street label Club Monaco for the outing to Margaret Thatcher’s hometown of Grantham.
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