How rich is Penelope in Bridgerton Season 3?

Penelope Featherington may be a wallflower in the Bridgerton universe, but her alter ego Lady Whistledown has made her wealthy by Season 3.

Since the first season of Bridgerton, Lady Whistledown was the crowned gossip queen on the Ton. Her identity remained a secret, but many speculated she was well off due to her in-demand newsletter.

In Bridgerton Season 2, Penelope’s secret of being the infamous Lady Whistledown was revealed also proving she had accumulated a hefty sum of money as the writer.

The reality of her wealth left Colin, Eloise, and her mother gasping for air in Season 3. But just how rich is Penelope compared to the modern day?

How rich is Penelope in Bridgerton Season 3?

In today’s money market, Penelope’s payment of £10k to Cressida is equivalent to almost $1 million.

Shortly after Penelope and Colin are married, Cressida learns the truth that Penelope is Lady Whistledown. With the Queen breathing down their necks to learn the writer’s identity, Cressida blackmails Penelope to keep it a secret for £10k.

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Penelope and her mother go to see Colin and Eloise to tell them. While Colin earnestly tells her not to pay, Penelope stuns them by saying she has more than enough money to.

Eloise questions whether Penelope has really made that much money in all these years, to which Penelope answers that she’s actually made much more.

So how rich is Penelope? She makes £10 per sold issue and, thankfully, a fan on Reddit answered the question.

“A while ago I looked up the purchasing power of £10,000 in 1820, which is not far off from what Pen saved in the books and close enough to the year. I didn’t bother with figuring out income from LW over time,” they explained.

“In 1820, you could buy one of the following with £10,000: Horses: 952. Cows: 2000. Wool: 11111 stones. Wheat: 1757 quarters. Wages: 66666 days (skilled tradesman). In today’s dollars that is roughly $935,841.86.”

In the books, Penelope has been Lady Whistledown for much longer than the series. The book details she made well over £8k.

Another fan broke it down further to say, “Pen could buy about £948k of modern stuff with her £10,000. The disparity between her wealth and that of the average 1820 worker is the same as that between the average 2024 worker and someone worth about £9.6 million. She has the status of someone worth about £13m. she has the economic clout of an author worth about £57m.”

By all accounts, Penelope is the wealthiest of all the characters and even the Bridgertons. It’s no surprise that her mother was left in utter shock while they were close to being kicked out of their home.

Bridgerton Season 3 is available to stream on Netflix. You can read more about why fans felt a key friendship was cut out, whether one fan-favorite character will get killed off, news on Bridgerton Season 4, and new series to stream this month.