UK’s Rishi Sunak met his wife, Infosys heiress Akshata Murthy at a US University

Akshata Murthy, the wife of UK’s Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Britain-based fashion designer, has a familiar sounding last name that many Indians will recognise in an instant.

Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and author Sudha Murthy, came to California to pursue her studies in Economics at Claremont Mckenna College, where she also took up French as a subject. With a Diploma in Clothes Manufacturing from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, she started studying for an MBA at Stanford University.

It was at Stanford that she met Rishi Sunak, an Oxford alumni, who had won a prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Within four years, they married in Bengaluru in a two-day wedding ceremony attended by cricketing legends including Indian Spinner Anil Kumble and the family of Rahul Dravid, the former national captain of the Indian Cricket team.

The husband and wife have been in the news for the past couple of days over a tax row, as Akshata Murthy has been accused of using her non-domicile status as a tax saving of millions in the UK. Rishi Sunak has maintained that since Murthy is an Indian citizen, she complies with UK tax law as a resident and her tax categorisation is because India does not recognise dual citizenship.