Sunday Times Rich List 2023; who is Lady Charlotte Wellesley, the UK’s youngest female billionaire?

Although The Duke of Westminster comes in at number 1 on the The Sunday Times Rich List 2023: The Wealthiest 35 Under 35 in the UK, with a fortune of £9.878bn, Lady Charlotte Wellesley still takes the coveted number two spot place, with a wealth of £2.167bn.

Lady Charlotte Wellesley is an aristocrat through and through, she is the great-great-granddaughter of the late German Emperor Wilhelm 11 and is the daughter of Princess Antonia of Prussia. According to The Telegraph in 2017, however “it took marrying a financier for Lady Charlotte Wellesley to become one of Britain’s wealthiest people.”

In 2016, Lady Charlotte Wellesley wore a bespoke off-the shoulder Emila Wickstead bridal gown with cathedral-length veil when she married financier and philanthropist Alejandro Santo Domingo. The wedding was documented in Vogue (as to be expected) and was attended by the likes of Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, King Juan Carlos 1 (the former King of Spain), supermodel Eva Herzigova, and the singer James Blunt who is married to Lady Charlotte’s cousin, Sofia Wellesley.

Vogue recalled that “the bride’s long train led to a brief moment of stress when negotiating her exit from the arrival car, but she and her father, the 9th Duke of Wellington-whose ancestry defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815- quickly recovered, making it out unscathed and with her entire look intact.”

According to Bloomberg, “Santo Domingo oversees the fortune of Colombia’s richest family through New York-based investment company Quadrant Capital. The family owns stakes in Belgium’s global beermaker AB InBev, Chile’s Corpbanca and Spain's Inmobiliaria Colonial. They control Caracol Television as well as other businesses.”