J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter author close to reaching billionaire status
J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, is close to reaching billionaire status, according to The Sunday Times rich list.
The Scottish writer, who made her fortune publishing tales about a fictional wizard, is said to have a net worth of £945m.
How did J.K. Rowling make her fortune?
The author made most of her money from the Harry Potter book series, and even though the last book was published years ago, the money is still flowing.
A new TV adaptation of Rowling’s Potter books is set to air in 2026, keeping the royalties from her Hogwarts tale rolling in for the years to come.
A stage production of Harry Potter also currently runs in the West End and in Tokyo, Hamburg and New York.
J.K. Rowling also published a novel, The Running Grave, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It was published last September and is the seventh novel in the Cormoran Strike series.
The tale follows the story of a war veteran, and the BBC has dramatised several of the stories.
Despite being one of the UK’s most loved novelists, in recent years, Rowling has been accused of being transphobic because of her views on gender identity and for saying trans women shouldn’t be allowed into female-only spaces.
However, she has denied that accusation.
Some of the actors who garnered fame through her stories — including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson — have made statements supporting trans people.
The backlash has not impacted her book sales.
According to The Times, she also owes money to the welfare state, “relying on benefits while writing her first Hogwarts tale”.
“When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s government, was there to break the fall,” she told the outlet. “It would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque.”