{"id":580914,"date":"2026-08-26T13:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/580914\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T13:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:24:12","slug":"downton-abbeys-maggie-smith-will-revealed-as-she-leaves-eight-figure-sum-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/580914\/","title":{"rendered":"Downton Abbey\u2019s Maggie Smith will revealed as she leaves eight-figure sum after death"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Downton Abbey<\/a> legend Dame Maggie Smith<\/a> left an estate worth almost \u00a316m to her two sons following her death, new records reveal. <\/p>\n

The star of the stage and screen, who also famously played Hogwarts professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter<\/a> films, died aged 89 in September 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Probate records show Smith left \u00a315,977,325 to her children Christopher and Toby Stephens, who she shared with her first husband, fellow actor Robert Stephens. <\/p>\n

Both of the couple\u2019s sons followed them into acting, with Christopher \u2013 who goes by the stage name Chris Larkin \u2013 landing roles in Doctor Who and Holby City, while Toby\u2019s credits include the James Bond film Die Another Day and the BBC\u2019s mid-noughties Jane Eyre adaptation. <\/p>\n

Smith and Robert Stephens divorced after almost eight years of marriage in 1975 and the former married Half a Sixpence playwright Beverley Cross just months after her divorce was finalised. They remained together until Cross\u2019s death in 1998. <\/p>\n

\"MaggieMaggie Smith in \u2018Downton Abbey\u2019 (ITV)<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s will states that copyright, royalties and unpublished works she inherited from Cross after his death should be split equally between the actor\u2019s two sons and her late husband\u2019s two children, Philippa Maughan and Shaun Cross, The Telegraph reports. <\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s estate, which included her five-bedroom West Sussex home, was worth a total of just over \u00a316m. Debts and expenses of just over \u00a325,000 were deducted to give the final figure.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s death was announced by her sons, who said via a publicist at the time: \u201cAn intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe actor won two Academy Awards and four Emmys (PA)<\/p>\n

In a decades-spanning career, Smith won two Oscars \u2013 being named best actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, before winning in the best supporting actress category for California Suite in 1978 \u2013 and four Emmys, including three for her portrayal of Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey. <\/p>\n

Her death sparked tributes<\/a> from many of the stars she shared the big and small screens with. Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe said: \u201cI will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you, Maggie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The King and Queen also shared their condolences, saying in a joint statement<\/a>: \u201cAs the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-580914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}