Maharaja of No. 10 – Woman makes Rishi Sunak richer than the royal family

10 Downing Street has hosted many Prime Ministers and their partners, but the couple living there are exceptional in many ways.

Britain’s new prime minister is the first Hindu to hold office, the first to take the oath of Hindu text Bhagavad Gita, the youngest prime minister in 240 years at 42 and the richest the UK has ever seen.

Worked and “rich married”
Right after college, Sunak worked as an investment banker, making him a multimillionaire, and he “married rich,” as the saying goes.

According to British media, his wife owns a £430 million (about €490 million) stake in Infosys, her father’s IT empire, which is said to have a market value of €77 billion. Together with her brother Rohan Murthy, the new first lady would inherit one of the greatest fortunes in Asia.

Together, Sunak and Murthy currently own an estimated 840 million euros. This makes them richer than King Charles III, whose private wealth after the death of the Queen is estimated at around 440 million euros.

Some British MPs are outraged by the fate of the ‘Maharajas of Downing Street’. Labor MP Nadia Whittome tweeted: “Rishi Sunak and his wife are worth £730 million. That’s about double the estimated fortune of Charles III. Keep that in mind when he talks about making ‘tough decisions’ where the working class will pay.”

Jedi, Finance Minister, Prime Minister
Prime Minister Sunak and Murthy, who were raised by her grandparents in Mubli, India, met while attending Stanford Elite University in California so that their parents could set up their businesses.

In 2009, the doctor’s son and the billionaire’s daughter married in a lavish ceremony in Bengaluru, India, where the couple lived for the next four years before moving to Sunak’s native Britain. The prime minister grew up as an immigrant child in the small English town of Romsey in the county of Hampshire, where as a young boy his dream was not to become a politician, but to become a Jedi Knight. At least that’s what he revealed when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a tweet sharing photos of him in school uniform outside his home and in a suit outside 11 Downing Street.

Sunak’s father, Yashvir, was born in what was then the British colony of Kenya, and his mother, Usha, in present-day Tanzania. The families of both were originally from Indian Punjab and emigrated to Britain in the 1960s, where Sunak’s parents met.

“Clothes everywhere… and shoes!”
The Prime Minister did not grow up in poverty, but modest compared to what he has now. He has a London flat on Old Brompton Road with his wife and daughters Anoushka and Krishna, a Grade II listed town house in North Yorkshire called Kirby Sigston Manor and a penthouse in Santa Monica.

In an interview with The Times in August, Rishi gave a glimpse into his marriage. He told the paper: “Everyone in my family drinks, my wife certainly drinks. It really bothers her that I don’t.”

He also revealed of his wife: “I’m incredibly tidy, she’s very messy. I’m much more organized, she’s more spontaneous… she won’t love me for saying so, but I’ll be honest, she doesn’t like tidying up much. She’s a total nightmare, clothes everywhere… and shoes… oh god, shoes.” Murthy studied fashion, among other things, and briefly ran a fashion label before heading up capital firm Catamaran Ventures, gym chain Digme Fitness and men’s outfitters New & Lingwood.

Start with symbolic power
In any case, the order and determination of the new prime minister, who seems to be able to handle the chaos surrounding his wife, gives the British hope that they can finally move into calmer waters.

It is symbolic that Sunak was appointed prime minister on the day of the festival of lights, Diwali, which is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains around the world. The festival of lights celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and represents a new beginning.