Disney heiress says any billionaire who can’t live on $999 million is ‘kind of a sociopath’

Abigail Disney criticized extreme wealth accumulation, stating that it reflects sociopathic behavior.

Updated on: Apr 10, 2025, 08:38:25 IST

By Sanya Jain

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Abigail Disney doesn’t mince words when it comes to wealth and power in America. A philanthropist, filmmaker, and outspoken heiress to the Disney fortune, she’s long said that billionaires in the United States need to be taxed more. In her latest interview with The Guardian, the 65-year-old shared her views on how important it is for the ultra-wealthy to share their wealth.

Abigail Disney, 65, criticizes billionaires who accumulate wealth (Facebook/abigail.disney)

“I am of the belief that every billionaire who can’t live on $999 million is kind of a sociopath,” Disney told the Guardian in an interview published on Monday. “Like, why? You know, over a billion dollars makes money so fast that it’s almost impossible to get rid of.

“And so by just sitting on your hands, you become more of a billionaire until you’re a double billionaire. It’s a strange way to live when you have objectively more money than a person can spend,” she said.

Abigail Disney’s net worth

Abigail Disney is the grand niece of Walt Disney and one of the heirs to the Disney fortune. Is she a billionaire herself? No, not even close. In a 2019 interview with the Financial Times, the Emmy-winning director had reluctantly disclosed her net worth. It stands at roughly $120 million.

“The internet says I have half a billion dollars and I might have something close to that if I’d been investing aggressively,” she told FT. “I’m roughly around $120m and I have been for some time now,” said Disney, who has given away more than $70 million over the past three decades.

She is also candid about her source of wealth, acknowledging that she is rich “only because of some quirks in the tax system, some good luck, and some very loving grandparents. But nothing else.”

(Also read: ‘My grandfather is spinning in his grave’: Abigail Disney condemns Nazi demonstration by Ron DeSantis' supporters)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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