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How King Charles leapt 20 places up UK rich list to become twice as wealthy as his mother - YAHOO NEWS
The King’s personal wealth is now well above £600m.
Freelance news writer, Yahoo UK
The King’s personal wealth is now well above £600m, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
King Charles, who acceded to the throne in 2022, ranks joint 238th in the list of the UK’s 350 wealthiest people and families, up 20 places from 258th in 2024.
The annual list of Britain’s wealthiest people was once again topped by the Hinduja family, which is worth more than £35bn.
The Hindujas were followed by real estate moguls David and Simon Reuben, who moved up to second after increasing their wealth to £26.9bn, and investor Sir Leonard Blavatnik (£25.7bn) in third.
How rich is King Charles?
In the past year, the King's personal wealth jumped by £30m to £640m, the Rich List said.
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It compares to the late Queen’s wealth, which was said to be £370m in 2022 when she died.
Charles is as wealthy as former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, who has a stake in Infosys, the Indian IT giant co-founded by her billionaire father. They also feature on this year's Rich List at £640m.
Calculations by the Rich List also suggest the monarch is £140m richer than David and Victoria Beckham, who are said to be worth £500m.
Where does King Charles get his money from?
Only personal assets are included by The Sunday Times when assessing the sovereign’s wealth. Therefore, this does not include the Crown Estate, which saw soaring profits thanks to wind farm deals, the Duchy of Lancaster estate or the Crown Jewels which are held in trust by the King for the nation.
Instead, Charles, 76, who has faced a challenging year as he continues to undergo treatment for cancer, has benefited from the investment portfolio he inherited from his late mother for the bulk of his wealth, the newspaper said.
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Sandringham in Norfolk and Balmoral in Aberdeenshire, private estates which previously belonged to the Queen, are also part of his financial fortune.
Profits from the Duchy of Cornwall have also helped build his personal wealth. The Duchy of Cornwall, which was owned by Charles until the Queen's death in 2022, when it was passed down to Prince William, is a portfolio of land, property and investments valued at more than £1bn. It provides an income for the heir to the throne, covering the cost of their public and private lives.
When he was Prince of Wales, Charles received a private income of about £23m a year from the duchy, used in part for non-official expenditure for himself and his family and for the official cost of personal staff, his office and official residences.
An unnamed former aide to Charles told The Sunday Times that he started saving profits following his £17m divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales in 1996: "He became prudent at tucking away some money from the duchy after that wipeout."
The aide added it wasn't "vast sums"... before specifying it was "several tens of millions".
