Meet Akshata Murty, billionaire wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday become the UKs 57th Prime Minister. Sunak, at 42, is reportedly younger than every predecessor except William Pitt the Younger. He is also the UK's first ever person of colour to lead the country, and the first Hindu Prime Minister. Interestingly, Sunak’s net worth - combined with that of his wife - is double the fortune of King Charles III.

Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, 42, is the daughter of the Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy. Often described as the Bill Gates of India, NR Narayana Murthy founded the software company Infosys. He congratulated his son-in-law as he exuded confidence that the first Indian-origin PM will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom. Sunak's mother-in-law Sudha meanwhile was Tata Motors' first female engineer after famously complaining via a postcard to the chairman about the firm's stipulation that "lady candidates need not apply".

As Sunak takes on his role amid a challenging times, all eyes are on his fashion designer wife who is also heir to billions through Infosys. According to reports, she has a 0.91 per cent stake in the company, worth about 700 million pounds (Dh2.92 billion), making her richer than the late Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal wealth was estimated at about $460 million by the 2021 Sunday Times Rich List.

The couple met at Stanford University in the United States when Murty was pursuing her MBA. The future prime minister was a Fulbright scholar with a first-class degree from Oxford. The couple married in her home town of Bengaluru in a two-day ceremony in 2009 attended by 1,000 guests. They have two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka.

In April this year, it emerged that Akshata was a non-domiciled UK resident, meaning she avoided UK taxes on her international earnings in return for paying an annual charge of 30,000 pounds. Without that non-dom status she could have been liable for more than 20 million pounds of UK taxes on these windfalls, it was reported.

After a public outcry, her spokesperson announced she would start paying UK taxes on her overseas earnings to relieve political pressure on her husband, The Guardian reported. The 42-year-old has also earned tens of millions in dividends in recent years.

Murty and Sunak own at least four properties, including a $7 million five-bedroom house in Kensington, London. They also own a flat in Santa Monica, California. She dabbled in finance and marketing before creating her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, in 2010. According to a 2011 Vogue profile, Murty works with artists in remote villages to create Indian-meets-Western fusion clothes that are "vehicles to discovering Indian culture".