She was absolutely minted!

During season three of Bridgerton, Penelope is finally identified as being behind Lady Whistledown and it is hinted that she’s made quite a sizeable income from her gossip sheets, but how much money did she really make?

Penelope would have gained an income from every gossip sheet sold, and given that she was writing around three a week it’s a fair amount of profit. Whilst the series doesn’t delve into her individual wealth as Lady Whistledown the Bridgerton books give us a lot more juicy details on just how stonkingly rich Penelope has become through her writing.

Via Netflix

In the book, Penelope mentions that she has exactly £8426 in her bank account, as Cressida is trying to blackmail her and threatens to expose her identity unless Penelope pays her off. However, this is after being Lady Whistledown for over 10 years, meaning she would have been making roughly £325 per year plus interest.

One Redditor worked out the amount she would have today taking inflation into consideration, and calculated she’d be worth roughly £750,000 in 2024. Not bad at all! As for how much Penelope could have afforded in the 1800s with her saved money, she could have bought 952 horses, 20000 cows or even a cottage in the countryside. In the books she gives a large bulk of her fortune away to her mother in a fake inheritance, so she likely had made even more money from being Lady Whistledown.

So whilst in the novels she has made at least £8426 over ten years, in the series we know she makes £10 per issue but she only publishes during the social season. The social season lasts three months overall, so over the two years the show has been following her so far she could have made a few thousand pounds.