Border point employees thought she was "kidding"

Sunak's mother-in-law lives at 10 Downing Street

Sudha Morty is a vegetarian who lives in humility despite her family's sheer wealth. Archival

Sudha Murty, the mother of Akshata Murti, wife of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has revealed that border officials thought she was joking with them about her stay at 10 Downing Street during her visit to the UK.

Murty, the wife of billionaire and Infosys founder Narayan Murti, said she wrote the historical address on the form she had to fill out for border officers.

She told a chat show in India that the border officer looked at her and said, "Are you kidding with us," adding: "I told them, 'No, I'm telling the truth.' and no one believed the 72-year-old could be the mother of the British prime minister's wife.

Ms Morty made headlines when she said it was her daughter who brought Sunak to the post of prime minister. Morty, a philanthropist and author of stories, said she too helped her husband become a famous businessman. "With great pride but my daughter has made her husband the head of the UK government," she added.

Morty revealed that her daughter "persuaded Sunak to fast on Thursday in honor of the Hindu religion." Akshata praised her mother for teaching her "values, humility and altruism."

Ms. Morty was the only woman in the College of Engineering when she studied engineering in the late sixties in the Indian state of Karnataka, and was accepted on the condition that she wear Indian dress known as sari, do not talk to any other male student and do not visit the college canteen.

In 1974, Murty became the first female engineer to work for India's Tata after she wrote to the company's president, complaining that his company did not employ women. She gave up a scholarship to study in the United States and thus became a "champion" for Indian women in the engineering industries. After meeting her husband, she helped him set up Infosys, a consulting and information technology company, in 1981. The company is worth around £50 billion, while daughter Akshata owns hundreds of millions of pounds worth of shares in the company.

Sudha is the driving force behind her husband's empire. "We always care about family, children and grandchildren, we take our work very seriously, we respect each other," she once said during an interview.

Despite the family's vast wealth, her blacks live with her husband in a modest house in the suburb of Bengaluru, avoiding huge parties. She is a vegetarian and wears an Indian sari and is "deeply religious".

In 2018, Sudha revealed that the family does not have a TV at home, and that they spend evenings with the whole family, doing useful things. It said it had no specific shopping policy and had not bought a new mast in 20 years. Her daughter Akshata is known for her love of expensive clothes from international brands.