J.K. Rowling is worth at least $670 million, though some say she's a billionaire. Take a look at how the controversial author makes and spends her fortune.
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- J.K. Rowling's net worth has been estimated to range from $650 million to $1.2 billion.
- The Harry Potter creator, who was on welfare while writing the first Harry Potter book, has put much of her fortune into UK real estate, taxes, and charity.
- In recent years, she's stirred controversy and lost fans over her comments about trans people.
J.K. Rowling's fortune is as vast as the Harry Potter empire she created.
It's unknown whether the second-highest paid author in the world is a mega-millionaire or billionaire, but the entire Harry Potter franchise — spanning books, movies, theme parks, and more — has spun some big bucks.
A 2016 New York Times estimate put her net worth at $1.2 billion after taxes, but she dropped off the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012. Forbes estimated her net worth at $650 million in 2017. More recent reputable estimates of Rowling's net worth aren't publicly available.
A media spokesperson for Rowling declined to comment on figures surrounding her net worth.
Rowling has splurged on real estate, building a portfolio of homes across England and Scotland. But Rowling puts much of her fortune to taxes, opting to pay Britain's highest tax rate — she has previously said she feels indebted to the system because she was on welfare when writing the first Harry Potter book. She has also donated millions to various charities.
However, Rowling has stirred controversy in recent years for her comments about the trans community. She recently published an essay on the topic that was deemed "transphobic," and it's causing her to lose Harry Potter fans.
Here's a look at Rowling's rags-to-riches story and how she spends her fortune.
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J.K. Rowling sits on a hefty fortune thanks to her Harry Potter empire, but it's unclear whether she's a mega-millionaire or billionaire.
The New York Times estimated Rowling's net worth to be $1.2 billion after taxes in 2016, but Forbes booted her off its Billionaires List in 2012. Forbes pegged her fortune to be around $650 million as of 2017.
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Rowling has been secretive about her fortune and has denied being a billionaire. But the number of zeroes to her net worth doesn't change her rags-to-riches story.
Rowling grew up in Gloucester, England, born to an aircraft engineer and high school technician. She described her teen years as difficult and later studied French at the University of Exeter.
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After graduating in 1986, she did translation work at Amnesty International. Four years later, she famously came up with the idea for Harry Potter on a train ride.
She wrote the book while living in Porto, Portugal, and then Edinburgh, where she lived in a small flat. At the time, Rowling was a single parent and living on government welfare.
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"I couldn't have written this book if I hadn't had a few years where I'd been really as poor as it's possible to go in the UK without being homeless," Rowling said in 2012.
She finished writing 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in 1995, but the book was initially rejected many times. Christopher Little, the literary agent who finally accepted her book, made a deal to print 500 copies with Bloomsbury for a meager a £2,500 ($3,141) advance in 1997. It sold 300,000 copies in the UK by 1999.
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In the US, Rowling sold the book to Scholastic for more than $100,000 — an unprecedented amount at the time. She then bought her own apartment.
Since the Harry Potter series launched, 500 million copies of the books have been sold worldwide. 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' broke records for the fastest-selling fiction book of all time.
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By The New York Times' estimate, the novels have raked in at least $7.7 billion. If Rowling took a standard author's royalty cut of 15%, she would have made at least $1.15 billion.
Book sales continue to do well to this day — all seven Harry Potter novels top the list of the most read fiction e-books on Amazon as of the second week of June.
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In 1998, Rowling announced that she signed a seven-figure deal with Warner Bros. to adapt the books into movies. The first movie has grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide to date.
The Harry Potter movies have collectively grossed more than $7.7 billion. If Rowling received the standard 10% of net profit participation deal, then she likely earned $770 million.
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In 2016, the first film of the five-part Harry Potter spinoff movie series Fantastic Beasts hit screens. It grossed $814 million worldwide. By Forbes' estimate, Rowling still received $10 million for it.
The entire Harry Potter movie series is the third highest-grossing film franchise of all time, raking in nearly $9.1 billion as of 2019.
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But Rowling's biggest cash cow is Universal Studios' Wizarding World attractions, which first opened in 2010. Forbes estimated she's received low double-digit millions from the parks.
And in 2012, she launched Harry Potter website Pottermore. It brought in $19 million in revenue in 2016 through multiple partnerships to sell e-books and audiobooks.
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The same year, the 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' play hit Broadway. It earned $2.3 million in ticket sales in a single week — the highest of any non-musical in Broadway's history.
After the Harry Potter book series ended in 2007, Rowling began penning new novels. 'The Casual Vacancy' sold 375,000 copies in the first six days. It was later adapted into a miniseries for HBO.
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She also released a new book series under the pen name Robert Galbraith. The first three Cormoran Strike books have sold 1.2 million copies, earning $9.9 million. The books are being adapted into a miniseries for BBC.
Forbes reports that Rowling earned $60 million from June 2019 through May 2020, making her the second highest-paid author in the world during that period. Here's how she spends her fortune.
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Rowling has spent a chunk of her fortune buying up homes across Scotland and England with her husband, Neil Murray.
Rowling's main residence is in Edinburgh. She reportedly sold her eight-bedroom, 19th-century Victorian mansion there in 2012 for over $3.6 million.
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The couple moved to another Edinburgh neighborhood in 2009. The newer home has been described as a "multimillion-pound 17th-century mansion" surrounded by 30-foot tall hedges.
The home has two interlinked, Hogwarts-like tree houses built for about $330,000 for their children. Rowling had to apply for planning permission in order to knock down a $1.3 million house next door to make room for the tree houses.
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In Scotland, Rowling also owns a 162-acre, $2.5 million Perthshire estate. It has a library, seven bedrooms, drawing room, swimming pool covered with copper domes, and 24/7 security guards.
She later installed four-foot high security gates and commissioned renovations for the home in 2020. That includes converting the drawing room to a bathroom and getting a new kitchen.
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In England, she owns a six-bedroom home in Kensington, London. She bought it in 2000 for a reported $5.6 million.
In 2011, she quietly bought back her childhood home — located in Tutshill, Gloucestershire, England, near the Forest of Dean — for $499,554. The Church Cottage inspired multiple elements in Harry Potter and is currently undergoing renovations.
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But property isn't the only thing Rowling spends her money on. In the mid-2010s, she purchased a 56-foot luxury yacht for $29 million. It was previously owned by Johnny Depp.
The boat has three decks and four bedrooms. In 2016, she put it up for rent for $130,000 a week and for sale at $20 million.
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Rowling also knows how to holiday. She has been spotted cruising around the Galapagos, visiting Mauritius, and staying in the Seychelles.
She was also once spotted summering in the Hamptons. According to NY Mag, she was willing to pay as much as $500,000 for a house there in July and August of 2006.
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And with countless movie premieres under her belt, Rowling has donned her share of designer dresses, like this 2011 Oscar de la Renta gown.
But for all these splurges, Rowling reportedly opts for a less splashy, more anonymous car over a luxury one.
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One reason Rowling may not be a billionaire anymore is because she pays Britain's top tax rate of 45%. Rowling has previously said, "I'm indebted to the welfare state. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net was there to break the fall."
She's known for her leftist political views, generally supporting Britain's Labour Party. She donated $1.25 million to the party in 2008. She's not supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, the party's current leader.
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Rowling has also made many charitable donations over the years, totaling at least $150 million.
She founded the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh in honor of her mother, who passed away when Rowling was 25, with a $16 million contribution.
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She also founded the Lumos Foundation, an international children's rights organization; the Volant Charitable Trust, which works to alleviate social deprivation across Scotland; and Comic Relief, an anti-poverty charity.
She also wrote and auctioned off a prequel short story from the Harry Potter universe, about James Potter and Sirius Black escaping a few muggle cops.
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More recently, she donated $1.25 million to homeless and domestic violence victims during the pandemic.
She also began publishing installments of a new story, 'The Ickabog,' for free on her website for parents and children.
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Rowling has long seemed to be a force for progressive good, but has stirred controversy for her comments about trans people in the past few years.
In June 2020, this came to a head when she posted a series of tweets arguing that: "If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased." She followed it up with an essay many readers deemed "transphobic."
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She received a lot of backlash online. A media spokesperson for Rowling told Business Insider that the author "has received overwhelming support in correspondence coming into her office since her piece was published."
Her comments have ruined Harry Potter for many fans, some of whom are even having their Harry Potter tattoos removed in response. While the series "is simply too gargantuan for its legacy to ever be truly tarnished by this controversy, the series is permanently stained for some," Insider's Jacob Sarkisian recently wrote.
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