Meet the women of the Murdoch clan
By Jo Abi|
The life of Australian born Rupert Murdoch has continued to fascinate business and gossip columnists for decades with his intriguing marriages, power struggles with his children and his incredible wealth and influence.
A new BBC documentary, The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, due to begin airing in the UK on Tuesday 14 at 9pm on BBC2, has provided even more fodder on his life, and in particular shone a light on the women of the Murdoch clan.
It's taken four marriages for media mogul Rupert Murdoch to meet Jerry Hall, the woman friends of the family say is proving to be a unifying force for the family.
Murdoch, 88, was married to Patricia Booker from 1956 until 1967. He then married Anna Murdoch (née Torv) in 1967 and they remained together until 1999. Wendy Deng was next, this marriage lasting from 1999 until 2013.
Then Murdoch met Hall and the couple were wed in 2016 and sources claim she has brought the family together, even Rupert's ex-wife Wendi Deng who recently joined the couple and Murdoch and Deng's two children on a family holiday, all orchestrated by Hall.
The women of the Murdoch clan
Rupert Murdoch has two sons, four daughters and 13 grandchildren - six of whom are granddaughters.
While sons Lachlan and James Murdoch have been actively involved in the family business on and off for decades, so too have the Murdoch women, some doing better than others.
Then there is the complication of succession, and exactly which of his children and grandchildren will continue the empire Murdoch has built.
While the children and grandchildren of Rupert Murdoch will want for nothing, with Murdoch worth a reported US$17billion (AUD$24billion), money doesn't always equal happiness.
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So, who are the Murdoch women and what roles have they played and will play in the future of the family business?
Prudence MacLeod, 61
Prudence is Murdoch's only child from his first marriage to Patricia Booker. The 61-year-old has never taken an interest in the spotlight or the family business.
She was married briefly to Crispin Odey and then to Alasdair MacLeod, with whom she runs Macdoch Ventures in Australia, an organisation that supports up and coming businesses.
The couple has three children - James, 29, Angus, 27 and Clementine, 24.
Elisabeth Murdoch, 51
Elisabeth is one of three children (joining brothers Lachlan and James) from Murdoch's marriage to Anna.
It is said that she and her father were close, that is until he married Wendi Deng and they reportedly had a falling out.
Elisabeth was involved in the family business but following the disharmony, started her own successful TV production empire called Shine, responsible for multiple hit TV series including Masterchef, Hunted and The Heist.
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There has been a professional reunion of sorts, with her father's News Corp purchasing Shine.
Elisabeth has four children - Cornelia, 26, and Anna, 23, by first husband Elkin Pianim and then Charlotte Emma and Sampson to second husband Matthew Freud.
She has married for a third time, to award-winning artist Keith Tyson.
Charlotte Emma, now 20, works in PR and doesn't have a close relationship with her grandfather.
Matthew famously had a falling out with his former father-in-law and Charlotte Emma remains close to her dad.
The children of Lachlan and James Murdoch
Lachlan, 48, is a media executive and company director, having worked in the family business as well as setting up his own successful ventures and is currently Chairman and CEO of the Fox Corporation after it was bought by Disney.
He has three children with his wife Sarah Murdoch - Kalan, 16, Aidan, 14, and Aerin, 10.
Daughter Aerin will certainly have her pick of media companies to join, although at age 10 she is probably still eyeing off a career as a vet, or something else to do with animals, as young ones tend to do.
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James, 47, has been just as active as his brother has in the family business, most notably during the phone bugging scandal in the UK when he was seated by his father's side to give testimony at the investigation into the dodgy practices by journalists employed by the family business at News of the World.
He has three children with wife Kathryn Hufschmid - Anneka, 17, Walter, 14 and Emerson, 12.
Their daughter Anneka is completing her education before having her pick of jobs in the family empire.
Grace and Chloe Murdoch
The daughters of Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng are aged 18 and 16 respectively and have enjoyed a lavish lifestyle since birth and have spent most of their time in New York.
They remain close to their father, having served as flower girls at his wedding to Jerry Hall in 2016.
Grace and Chloe have also grown close to Hall's daughter Georgia May Jagger, with the girls attending each other's birthday celebrations.
It is too early to say if they will join the family business, although they will always have that choice, as have all of Murdoch's children.
Sources used for this article include BBC, BBC2, Tatler and Wikipedia.
