Akshata Murty, an Indian millionaire in Downing Street

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It is not easy to leave behind a luxurious mansion of eight million euros in Kensington to move to the shadows of Downing Street.

Tell that to

, the billionaire wife of Rishi Sunak, who already had a first and not very pleasant experience of "moving" when her husband was secretary of the Treasury and they moved temporarily, with Boris and Carrie Johnson as neighbors.

The new "power couple" of British politics and economy (with a fortune estimated at more than 830 million euros) will return to the emblematic street of the

, but not to the apartment at number 11, lavishly redecorated to the dizzying and very expensive taste of Carrie, after a "modest" reform that cost 120,000 euros.

, although their daughters Krisha and Aroushka now have to cross central London to get to Glendower Prep school, where Harper, the daughter of the Beckhams (25,000 euros per year tuition).

Rishi Sunak

and Akshata Murty married for love in 2009, at a wedding in front of a thousand guests in Bangalore, but

.

After all, Akshata is the daughter of Narayana Murty, the Infosys tycoon and the seventh richest man in India (who has recognized these days his double "pride" for his daughter and his son-in-law, who stands out for his "genuine modesty").

Rishi and Akshata actually met in style, doing their "masters" at

in 2004, more or less when Zuckerberg was plotting the birth of Facebook on the same stage.

Sunak, the son of a doctor and pharmacist of Indian origin, came from a wealthy family - but not exactly a millionaire - in Southampton and

, including his time at Oxford University.

Akshata was born in the same year as Sunak, 1980, in the city of Hubli, in the state of Karnataka, in southeastern India.

When she came into the world 42 years ago, her parents were busy making their way into the high-tech world (her mother, Sudah, was one of the country's first female engineers).

So she was practically raised by her paternal grandparents in the suburb of Jayanagar and in an environment of relative austerity,

.

She completed her studies at the Baldwin Girls School in Bangalore and from there she went on to the "California dream" at Claremont McKenna College, where she studied French and economics, although she finally decided to opt for fashion and completed a course in design.

She temporarily worked at

and Unilever, when her future husband was working at

.

Their careers and hearts intersected, and together they launched the venture capital firm Catamaran Ventures.

In 2011, he took the leap with his own fashion firm, Akshata Designs, with the idea of ​​engaging artisans from remote villages in India "to elaborate their designs, to claim authenticity and to protect their rich legacy", as he stated in his day to Vogue.

With the security of having 0.9% of Infosys shares in her pocket, she served as director of the Digme Fitness gym chain, which went bankrupt during the pandemic.

She has also been at the helm of the menswear brand New & Lingwood.

Since Sunak launched himself into politics (he was a deputy for the first time in 2015), Akshata

, devoted above all to her two daughters, jealous of her privacy and that of her family, although always active in the management of the couple's wealth.

Sunak was for a time the most popular minister in the Boris Johnson government, boosted by the Covid rescue plan, but tensions with his chief of ranks went further and reached a peak with the leak of the bombshell news: Akshata he avoided paying taxes in the United Kingdom

(which allowed him to save the equivalent of 23 million euros).

"I will not allow my wife to be used to shoot me," Sunak defended himself, at the time of announcing that Akshata had finally changed his status.

But the damage was done: her popularity as an "alternative" to Johnson began to fall, while the perception of his insurmountable distance from the common British rose.

Rishi and Akshata made

first time this year .

Adding to their Infosys shares and investment portfolio are their four houses, including the one they still own in Santa Monica, California, and their Georgian weekend mansion in North Yorkshire, where they recently built an indoor pool for half a year. million euros.

Discretion is one of the virtues of Akshata

, who has always reserved herself for big occasions with her husband and who has spread her protective cloak over the nice Krishna and Anoushka, aged 11 and 9.

The daughters were seen during the summer in the frustrated campaign of his father, who decided to follow his advice and virtually incorporate

British fitness

Akshata respects her husband's frenetic activity, but she is more into yoga.

"I come from a family with very strong women, and

," declared the new British first lady a little over a year ago in an unusual

interview

.

"I think that society should allow women to express themselves in a broader sense, and beyond what is traditionally considered success. That's what I tell my daughters: don't be shy and show who you really are." ".

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