Dame Maggie Smith left her two sons her £16million estate following her death, new probate records show.

The acclaimed actor, whose career spanned over six decades, died at a London hospital in September 2024 at the age of 89.

Dame Maggie, perhaps best known for her roles in Downton Abbey and Harry Potter, left behind a net estate valued at £15,977,325.

Her estate includes a five-bedroom West Sussex farmhouse, called Douglas Lake Farm. where she lived for 40 years and raised her children.

The fortune will be given to her son Christopher Stephens, known professionally as Chris Larkin, and Toby Stephens, both working actors whom she shared with her first husband, fellow actor Robert Stephens.

Following their divorce, she married playwright Beverley Cross in 1975. The pair remained married until his death in 1998.

Her will states that copyright, royalties and unpublished works she inherited from Cross after his death is to be shared out separately, split equally between her two sons, and Cross’ two children, Philippa Maughan and Shaun Cross.

She first gained prominence as a stage actor, spending eight years in the National Theatre company, which saw her star alongside Lawrence Olivier in Othello, which was later adapted for film.

Her first Oscar came for her role in 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and she went on to star in numerous other hits, including Gosford Park, A Room with a View and Death on the Nile.

In her later career, she took on the roles of both Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series and Lady Violet Crawley in ITV’s Downton Abbey.

Announcing her death in September 2024, her sons remembered as “an intensely private person”, and added that she was “with friends and family at the end”.