Daniel Craig says he will not leave his children a fortune as an inheritance

Daniel Craig has said he will not leave his children a fortune as an inheritance because he finds the practice “distasteful”.

The actor, 53, will have earned vast sums while heading the James Bond franchise and will also star in future Knives Out films, which were bought by Netflix in a big bucks deal announced earlier this year.

Craig has a three-year-old daughter with wife Rachel Weisz and an adult daughter, named Ella, from his marriage with Fiona Loudon.

Oscar-winner Weisz, 51, also has a son from her relationship with filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.

Craig does not plan on passing all of his money to his children, instead preferring to give it away, noting the example of industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

He told Candis magazine: “Isn’t there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you’ve failed? I think Andrew Carnegie gave away what in today’s money would be about 11 billion dollars, which shows how rich he was because I’ll bet he kept some of it too.

“But I don’t want to leave great sums to the next generation. I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is: get rid of it or give it away before you go.”

Craig’s fifth and final outing as 007 will come in No Time To Die, which will arrive in September following multiple pandemic-enforced delays.

While he plays one of the best-known characters in film history, the intensely private Craig, who was born in Chester, said he has no interest in celebrity.

He said: “And it’s nothing I should complain about really, because I also have huge benefits out of being who I am.

“But the fact is that privacy is a hugely important part of my life, and this being a… celebrity… makes me nervous, actually.

“There is a side of my life that I just choose not to share and not to discuss. I think people’s private life is something private, and that’s that.”

No Time To Die will be released in the UK on September 30.