‘Inside the secret world of Mrs Sunak’

LONDON: Akshata Murthy, Indian wife of British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is slated to appear on the cover of the February issue of Tatler, a 313-year-old international monthly magazine, which features glamour, fashion and society, not to mention parties and people.

The cover story is to be entitled: “No 10’s Chatelaine: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF MRS SUNAK”.

The edition – available from January 5 – will reportedly carry an extensive profile of Akshata, fashion designer and venture capitalist daughter of one of the founders of the Bengaluru-based Indian software giant Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy, and educationist and writer Sudha Murthy.

Meanwhile, a news item in The Times of December 28 was headlined “Akshata Murthy allows a peek behind the curtains of 10 Downing Street”. A sub-heading said: “Beyond the gold tassels, Rishi Sunak’s wife is keen to distance herself from the ‘court of Carrie’ (a reference to Boris Johnson’s wife) era”.

Quoting John Challis, an upholsterer from Sunak’s House of Commons constituency of Richmond in the northern county of Yorkshire, the paper indicated the Sunaks will be living among “far less glitz” than the Johnsons.

For a start, the Sunaks have opted to live in the flat above the office below at 10 Downing Street, instead of choosing the larger apartment atop No 11 (which downstairs has the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer), which UK Prime Ministers have tended to grab since 1997.

Akshata did not apparently give an interview to Tatler, but authorised her friends to speak to the publication. They are said to have described her as “a passionate Brexiteer” who wants Downing Street to “open up”.

The Murthys are familiar with the No 10 flat, for they resided here when Sunak was chancellor. Challis is quoted as telling Tatler: “The ornate cornicing was hand-gilded and a rug was commissioned to almost fill the room”, when it was remodelled by Akshata.

There are according to Challis’ description “opulent curtains in the entrance areas” and “most of the sofas are velvet, in jewel colours, and the cushions also became a work of art”. The Sunaks, The Times reported, spent their own money to improve their official abode, as opposed to the controversial means Johnson employed to renovate the No 11 flat when he and Carrie occupied it.

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