What You Should Know About Akshata Murthy, Fashion Designer Married To Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak lost the election for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but after Liz Truss resigned he reentered the race. Sunak secured more than a hundred nominations, the minimum requirement to contest for the post.

Sunak became the first Indian-origin Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Monday, October 24. The 42-year-old is also the first person of colour to serve as Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak's fashion designer wife Akshata Murthy is the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy and chairperson Sudha Murthy.

Due to her wealth, tax situation, and connections to Russia, the 42-year-old was also the subject of scrutiny earlier this year. She did not pay taxes on her money earned outside of Britain due to her non-domicile status. She said that as a result of the controversy, she would no longer use the non-domicile status and would instead pay taxes on her income earned outside of Britain.

Akshata Murthy's Life and Career

The fashion designer was born in 1980 to an incredibly wealthy family before beginning her business career and getting married to Sunak. Akshata Murthy was nurtured by her grandparents in Hubli, Karnataka. This was before her parents relocated her to Mumbai when she was two years old.

Akshata Murthy's parents, Narayana and Sudha Murthy co-founded the technology corporation Infosys.

She eventually founded her fashion brand, Akshata Designs, after completing her diploma in clothes manufacturing from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She has also graduated from Claremont McKenna College in California with a degree in French and Economics. According to reports, the business was shut down after only three years of its operation. She also has an MBA degree from Stanford University.

She was appointed to the board of directors of New & Lingwood in 2017, an outfitter for students attending the prestigious Eton College in England, which is also the alma mater of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In February, she gave up her position in the company.

Akshata Murthy Net Worth

Her father N.R. Narayana Murthy, is referred to as the "Bill Gates of India" since he and his wife Sudha turned the software company Infosys into a multibillion-dollar empire. With a net worth of an estimated £500 million, Akshata Murthy is wealthier than the Queen thanks to her 0.91 per cent ownership of the corporation.

Infosys was the fourth Indian business to ever reach a market capitalisation of $100 billion in 2021. The current estimated net worth of Akshata Murthy's father is $3.7 billion.

She currently has a total net worth of $1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Murthy also joined the board of directors of Digme in 2017, a London-based fitness business that filed for bankruptcy in February. As of February, Murthy, who is still a director, retained a 4.4 per cent share.

She is recognised as a shareholder in at least six additional businesses, including Wendy's restaurants in India, Jamie Oliver's Pizzeria, and men's clothing retailer New & Lingwood. Her contentious ownership of Infosys accounts for the majority of her wealth.

Suggested Reading: Father’s Day Special: Letter to his daughter, Narayana Murthy to Akshata

Marriage with Rish Sunak

She met Rishi Sunak when she was completing her MBA at Stanford University and eventually got married in 2009. The couple received an instant nod from Murthy's father. Narayan Murthy found Rishi Sunak to be "intelligent, handsome, and, most importantly, honest" in an open letter to her.

The power couple jointly owns several assets. In 2022, The Guardian reported that the value of their six-story vacation apartment in California was $7.2 million. It is claimed to provide "stunning views of the Santa Monica mountain."