Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock | One of the richest women in the world started her career living on social aid

Virtually every person in the world has at least heard the name Harry Potter, but a bunch of us have read the books, watched the movies, and enjoyed one or the other, or both! According to some rough estimates, Joanne Rowling has sold over 500 million books, which is the highest figure out of all blockbuster books or book series.

She has won the throne easily with the second place is over 150 million sales less. But, what fascinates people most is this writer’s story. She wasn’t given an opportunity by someone to write the best-selling book series of all time. She didn’t get lucky with a commercial. She did it all by herself and it was for her kids.

J.K. Rowling bio

Joanne was born in 1965, in Yate, England, into a middle-class family. She was quite a “bookish child” as she describes herself, as Joanne did love to read and write. She studied French and got her BA from the University of Exter.

She worked as a secretary and some other jobs in London, and it is during this time that she began writing her own stories. An interesting story is that Joanne was traveling by train to Exter one day when the train was delayed, and the characters of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley just came about in her mind, as she describes it.

In her late 20s, Joanne started a relationship with a Portuguese journalist, Jorge Arantes. It was pretty serious but troubled as she later revealed. After a miscarriage, they did have a daughter in 1992. By this moment, Joanne did have an outline for the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Rex/Shutterstock | Joanne with her first husband and child

She later revealed that during this time, she was a victim of domestic abuse. He husband had slapped her and, as she said it later, did not regret his actions. It was a “short and catastrophic” marriage and it ended in 1993 when her husband threw her out of their home in Portugal.

Joanne came back with the police, took her daughter, and was in hiding for the next couple of weeks before she could leave Portugal. She lived on social security for some time after this and thought of herself as “a failure” as she describes it.

Joanne remembers this time in her life and says that writing the first Harry Potter book was a way for her to deal with pain, and loss, and to save her own life. And, she indicates that it is all reflected in the story in a way.

The first book was completed in 1995 and twelve publishers rejected the manuscript before it was bought by Bloomsbury Publishing, but their owner did tell her the book won’t make any money. She did only make just over four thousand pounds before a corporation bought the rights to the book for over 100 thousand and the rest is history.

According to Times, J.K. Rowling’s current wealth is estimated at around 820 million pounds, which is around 1,24 billion US dollars, making her currently UK’s 196th-richest person. She is a mother of three and is happily married to Neil Murray since 2001.