Rupert Murdoch
Marriages

In 1956, Murdoch married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne; the couple had their only child, Prudence, in 1958. They divorced in 1967.

In 1967, Murdoch married Anna Torv, a Scottish-born cadet journalist working for his Sydney newspaper The Daily Mirror. In January 1998, three months before the announcement of his separation from Anna, a Roman Catholic, Murdoch was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (KSG), a papal honour awarded by Pope John Paul II. While Murdoch would often attend Mass with Torv, he never converted to Catholicism. Torv and Murdoch had three children: Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia on 22 August 1968), Lachlan Murdoch (born in London, UK on 8 September 1971), and James Murdoch, (born in London on 13 December 1972). Murdoch's companies published two novels by his wife: Family Business (1988) and Coming to Terms (1991). They divorced in June 1999. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of US$1.2 billion in assets.

On 25 June 1999, 17 days after divorcing his second wife, Murdoch, then aged 68, married Chinese-born Wendi Deng. She was 30, a recent Yale School of Management graduate, and a newly appointed vice-president of his STAR TV. Murdoch had two daughters with her: Grace (born 2001) and Chloe (born 2003). Murdoch has six children, and is grandfather to thirteen grandchildren. Near the end of his marriage to Wendi, hearsay concerning a link with Chinese intelligence (which was later proven to be unfounded) became problematic to their relationship. On 13 June 2013, a News Corporation spokesperson confirmed that Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng in New York City, US. According to the spokesman, the marriage had been irretrievably broken for more than six months. Murdoch also ended his long-standing friendship with Tony Blair after suspecting him of having an affair with Deng while they were still married.

On 11 January 2016, Murdoch announced his engagement to former model Jerry Hall in a notice in The Times newspaper. On 4 March 2016, Murdoch, a week short of his 85th birthday, and 59-year-old Hall were married in London, at St Bride's, Fleet Street with a reception at Spencer House; this was Murdoch's fourth marriage. In June 2022, The New York Times reported that Murdoch and Hall were set to divorce, citing two anonymous sources. Hall filed for divorce on 1 July 2022 citing irreconcilable differences; the divorce was finalised in August 2022.

During Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in 2023, Murdoch, who is quarter Irish, proposed to his partner, Ann Lesley Smith. The engaged couple first met at an event in September 2022. In April 2023, two weeks after the couple were engaged, Murdoch suddenly called off the engagement. The split was said to be caused by Murdoch's discomfort with Smith's religious views and her infatuation with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, reportedly referring to him as "a messenger from God". Carlson was fired from Fox News three weeks later.

Murdoch became engaged again in March 2024, to retired Russian molecular biologist Elena Zhukova. Their wedding was held in June 2024 at Murdoch's estate in California. He has a stepdaughter, Dasha Zhukova, ex-wife of Roman Abramovich.
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