Millionaire Akshata Murty, Rishi Sunak's wife, opens doors and her heart to the public

Rishi Sunak is under fire from the British public. As his problems get worse, his wife, Akshata Murty, is going from strength to strength - wowing the public with her style, hosting important charity events and making the cover of Tatler magazine by giving an intimate insight into No 10.

The (extremely rich) First Lady of Britain is making No 10 more accessible, but that's a small speck on the mammoth list of achievements Murty has to offer. We take a look at her wealth, properties, home life, little-known habits, and surprising love story.

Akshata Murty met Rishi Sunak at Stanford University in the US. It seems there was an instant attraction as Sunak shared years later that there was ‘clearly something’ when the two met, according to ‘Hello’.

Murty had created such an impression on the young Sunak, that he even altered his class schedules just to be nearer her. Rishi had admitted to The Sunday Times that he adjusted his timetable ‘to be in a particular class’ and spend more time with his future wife and ‘sit next to each other’.

After getting her degree, Akshata Murty and her new beau resided in Santa Monica, California. Living in a beautiful penthouse apartment looking out over the ocean, she worked for Tendris for a while, but quit to start her own fashion label. It collapsed within three years and the couple headed to the UK.

Rishi wanted a career in politics, starting the journey almost right away, but not before joining forces with his wife and starting up London-based Catamaran Ventures and dabbling with a gym chain and even Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria. But Murty is seriously wealthy - and the majority of it comes from family.

The now 42-year-old is worth millions - hundreds of them. A sizeable amount of her wealth comes from a 0.9% stake in her father’s IT start-up Infosys. Her father, Narayana Murthy, is now one of the richest men in India and referred to as 'one of the 12 greatest businessmen of all time’.

It may not seem like a large percentage, but Mr. Murthy (the mogul spells his name with an ‘h’ while his wife and children do not) built the company into a multi-billion pound enterprise. Akshata Murty’s stake is worth approximately £690m. Currently, on paper, that’s richer than the King.

Despite having that wealth to ‘sit on’, Akshata Murty also received dividends from the share. This has amounted to approximately £ 54 million in the past seven and a half years alone.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, the couple has built up a wealth of £730 million and Sunak is the first frontline politician to feature in those rankings since it started in 1989. The politician famously said in a BBC Radio 4 interview that he doesn’t ‘judge people by their bank account’.

Although they now live at Number 10, the couple has a neat portfolio of expensive properties. Their main London home is a five-bedroom house spread across four stories in the elite Kensington Mews. It is worth an estimated £7 million.

The couple also owns a flat in Old Brompton Road inside a Georgian Grade II listed manor house. Estimated value? A cool £2 million for the flat. They also still have their property in Santa Monica, California, looking out over the beach.

Photo taken by Will Fox in July 2005 and released to the public domain.

The Sunak/Murty family spends many weekends at their grand country house in Kirby Sigston. The Express suggests that there have been reports valuing the house at 1.5 million and is set on a 12-acre plot of land. He even has planning permission to build a separate outbuilding on the grounds for a 20-meter swimming pool and tennis court.

Photo: Paul Buckingham, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 / Inset: Twitter @rishisunakmp

The couple, it seems, are very different people. The PM opened up to The Sunday Times, giving us a little insight into what their home life is really like. “I’m incredibly tidy, she’s very messy. I’m much more organised, she is more spontaneous,” he said.

“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,” Britain’s Prime Minister added.

Akshata has, as you can imagine, an impressive wardrobe. She is often seen dressed up in designer labels with no expense spared. Recently, however, the public has seen a different side to Britain’s first lady.

The day the couple moved into Number 10, Murty was seen wearing some grey leggings, an H&M gilet, and some faux fur sliders. The millionaire has also been seen in sportswear out with her daughters. But Akshata, surprisingly, has modest morals and humble beginnings.

Photo: Getty / Twitter @anmurty

Despite the obvious wealth the Murthy/Murty family now has, it was certainly not always that way. The family could not even afford a phone and, back in 1980, the family had to resort to letters - even sending one with news as important as Akshata’s birth.

In published letters, Mr. and Mrs. Murthy had said they were ‘struggling to find their feet’ when they were young with a young baby. The couple sent the young Akshata off to live with her paternal grandparents while they tried to get careers and provide for their new family. A year later, Mr. Murthy founded Infosys. And the rest is history.

The family are reported as being extremely humble by many publications. They live a simple lifestyle but many expected the big wedding between Akshata and Rishi to be a lavish one. That was not the case and the couple had a traditional, yet simple, affair, according to Wedding Sutra.

Even though it was a two-day affair, the wedding was toned down as far as Indian wedding standards go: the bride and mother-of-the-bride were not draped in jewels and dressed in embroidered materials. Instead, the bride opted for natural make-up, a simple hairdo, and minimal jewelry.

Sunak later shared to The Times that he was encouraged to have a few drinks before his wedding to Akshata, but the PM doesn’t drink. He did say, however, share that the Murthy family loves a tipple. 'My family all drink, my wife definitely drinks. It massively irritates her that I don’t,' he said.

Grazia quoted Akshata speaking about wealth in an interview in 2017. She said, ‘Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money… Mother Teresa was a classy woman… The concept that you automatically gain class by acquiring money is an outdated thought process.’

Saying that, money has certainly encouraged a classy life for herself and her children. The couple have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, and both go to a private all-girls school in South Kensington. They are fellow pupils of Harper Beckham, Victoria and David Beckham’s daughter.

Akshata has had a fair amount of bad press in the UK and, of course, it all comes down to money. It was revealed the heiress had non-domicile status in the UK, meaning she did not pay UK taxes on her offshore earnings, despite living in England.

At the time the scandal erupted, the family put out a statement: “Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home. India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”

Akshata immediately relinquished her non-dom status and set about paying taxes on all her earnings in the UK, saying she did not want to be a ‘distraction’ to her husband’s political career. Was this proof she has more ties to India than the UK - where her husband is now Prime Minister?

Akshata Murty took to social media to defend her country and husband saying, “Rishi has always respected the fact that I am Indian and as proud of my country as he is of his… He’s never asked me to abandon my Indian citizenship, ties to India or my business affairs, despite the ways in which such a move would have simplified things for him politically.” Later, Akshata ensured she added that she loved her country but does ‘love the UK too’.

When Rishi Sunak moved into the PM’s residence - he moved into 10 Downing Street. This is not actually the residence for Prime Ministers, however. Sunak had previously resided at Number 10 when he was Chancellor and he and his family lived in the smaller apartment, fitting for that role.

At the time, Mr Sunak's press secretary told reporters: 'They will be moving into the No 10 flat, where they used to live.’ It’s rather a shame as Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, had famously renovated the PM’s quarters for a sizeable sum of £200,000, including gold wallpaper that cost thousands of pounds.

Akshata, when permitting Tatler magazine into Number 10 for a root around, had also put her own touches on the space. According to the publication, she had commissioned 'exquisite fabrics, including fine damask from her favourite soft-furnishing company, Challis Interiors in Richmond' to put her stamp on the residence. There is no doubt that herself, her husband and her children are in fine surroundings indeed.