Today JK Rowling, although no longer a billionaire, is still richer than the Queen of England. The books and movies have made their money of course, but then there's all the merchandise, the theme park and the studio tour too.
JK Rowling ranks 168th with £945 million, while Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy McCartney are 151st with a combined fortune of £1.03 billion. In terms of famous British tycoons, Lord Sugar snags the 145th place with £1.1 billion, and Sir Richard Branson, who's worth £2.42 billion, commands the 72nd position.
British author Joanne Rowling, also known as J.K. Rowling, is the second-richest author in the world with a net worth of $1 billion. Rowling is the author of the hit children's fantasy series “Harry Potter.” The seven-volume series sold over 600 million copies and has been translated into 84 languages.
Rowling's wizarding world grew into a global franchise featuring two film series, multiple Harry Potter video games, numerous board games, and even its own theme park. So, it's no surprise that off the back of all this success J.K. Rowling comes in at the top of this list of the richest authors in the world.
Rowling denied that she was a billionaire in a 2005 interview. By 2012, Forbes concluded she was no longer a billionaire due to her charitable donations and high UK taxes, but it re-added her to its list of billionaires in 2025. She was named the world's highest paid author by Forbes in 2008, 2017 and 2019.
However, an investigation by the Guardian in 2023 estimated that King Charles's fortune could be almost £2bn. That includes cars, rare stamps, property, investments, horses, jewellery, art and a hereditary estate. The wealth of Sunak and his wife has fallen by £11m to £640m.
An official statement from Buckingham Palace in 1993 called estimates of £100 million "grossly overstated". Forbes magazine estimated the Queen's net worth at around $500 million (about £325 million) in 2011, while an analysis by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index put it at $425 million (about £275 million) in 2015.
Oceanco's "Samsara" (290ft): Details: 290-foot superyacht built in 2015, previously named "Cloud 9". Owner: J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Value: Estimated at $150 million.
J. K. Rowling first met Queen Elizabeth in March 2001 shortly after the publication of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages.
Kim Kardashian is worth $1.7 billion thanks largely to Skims and SKKN. Taylor Swift, worth $1.6 billion, earned a huge chunk of her fortune from her blockbuster Eras Tour along with successful movies, books, and album re-recordings.
World's Celebrity Billionaires 2025: In 2025, Steven Spielberg emerged as the wealthiest celebrity globally, with an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion, surpassing George Lucas, according to Forbes' latest Billionaire List.
Neil Gaiman, the acclaimed British author known for works like The Sandman, American Gods, and Coraline, is estimated to have a net worth of approximately $18 million.
Winfrey, estimated to be worth $US1. 5 billion, easily tops the Forbes.com list. She came ahead of Rowling, with $US1 billion, and businesswoman and home entertaining expert Stewart, with more than $US600 million.
Nora Roberts, known affectionately by her literary peers as “The Nora”, is one of the names on the Forbes list of the super-rich, with a total fortune of around 400 million dollars.
