Beaten at the beginning of September by Liz Truss to become Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak had his revenge since he obtained this status following the unexpected and above all very hasty resignation of his competitor. This grandson of immigrants of Indian origin, having reached the British elite through his studies, now faces great responsibilities. To carry out his mandate, he can notably count on the support of his wife Akshata Murty.
They met at the prestigious Stanford University in California, where both were preparing a master’s degree in business. If he, from a modest background, benefited from a scholarship, she, for her part, inherited an immense fortune. In effect, today, at the age of 42, she owns shares worth almost a billion dollars in Infosys, an Indian technology giant co-founded by his father NR Narayana Murthy in 1981 and whose value is today estimated at 100 billion dollars. Just that ! This fortune even exceeds that of the late Queen Elizabeth II, which was some 350 million pounds (420 million euros), according to the British newspaper The Sunday Times.
A strict upbringing
But this money did not go to the head of Akshata Murty who, despite this comfort, grew up in Bangalore (India) under the strict upbringing of her mother Sudha Murty, the first woman appointed as an engineer in the automotive group Tata Motors . The latter notably prohibited her and her brother Rohan from watching television at home. She also forced him to go to school in a rickshaw (light car pulled by a bicycle or scooter) like all their other classmates. She is considered by some to be “the favorite grandmother of Indians”, at 72 years old. And for good reason, it has enabled the construction of 60,000 libraries in India.
A fairly open-minded family, despite the fact that it is immersed in a hierarchical Indian society. Akshata Murty’s parents agreed that she would marry Rishi Sunak in 2009, who in their eyes was just the son of a doctor. From there, the couple never stopped evolving. Akshata Murty created her own fashion brand in 2010, Akshata Designs, before becoming director of the investment company Catamaran Ventures, founded with her husband, in 2013. Rishi Sunak, therefore, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .
They have two daughters, Anoushka and Krishna, and own at least four properties, including a house in London’s upscale Kensington neighborhood worth £7 million ($7.9 million). and an apartment in Santa Monica, California.