Despite the billionaire media mogul reporting he “wants to live forever”,and optimistically declaring he and his 66-year-old bride-to-be were “both looking forward to the second half of our lives together”,more realistic heads that aren’t inhabiting the clouds will wonder whether this will alter anything in love-struck Murdoch’s empire.
Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to 66-year-old former model and journalist Ann Lesley Smith,a fifth marriage he says will hopefully be his last.
And it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the only marriage Murdoch has worked on this year. Merging his two major companies,News Corp and Fox,was also on his agenda – a deal with which Murdoch was equally enamoured.
However,the corporate nuptials were nipped in the bud thanks to shareholders in both Fox and News mounting a full-frontal campaign against the merger,which they argued wouldn’t be in their best interests.
Luckily for Murdoch,shareholders don’t get a vote in his affairs of the heart.
The now-abandoned tie-up between News and Fox appeared to be led by his eldest son Lachlan,who,as the management heir to both thrones,was looking to consolidate the empire.
Rupert Murdoch with wife-to-be Ann-Lesley Smith.CHRISBRANDIS.COM/ BACKGRID
His idea was that merging the companies would create a larger company with more financial firepower to make acquisitions and pursue his ambitions in gaming.
How marriage to Smith will play into the Murdoch succession plan is the obvious question.
At first glance it won’t. First and most importantly,at 66 Smith won’t add to the brood of six children he produced from the first three marriages.
And if his previous marriage to Jerry Hall can be regarded as a precedent,Smith would land some multimillion-dollar properties around the globe and tens of millions of dollars in the event she ends up being his fifth divorce.
But with the ageing of the now 92-year-old Murdoch,there must be an increased likelihood that Smith will ultimately become his widow. (Murdoch told the media that “I know this would be my last – it had better be”.)
If he is right,this may result in Smith receiving a more generous settlement than her predecessor,but will likely mean she is still bound by any prenuptial agreement that presumably wouldn’t give her access to the Murdoch family trust – the chest that contains the family’s corporate riches.
Murdoch has previously signed a marriage contract four times to lifetime partnerships.
Round two:From left,Lachlan Murdoch,James Murdoch,Anna Murdoch,Elisabeth Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch.Supplied
The first with flight attendant Patricia Booker who produced his first child,Prudence;the next was Anna Torv,who bore him three children,Elisabeth,Lachlan and James;then Wendi Deng,with whom he has two daughters;and finally to Hall.
The relationship between the eldest son Lachlan and Deng was particularly toxic in the later part of her marriage to Murdoch,which is said to have been the result of tension around succession after her two children became part of Murdoch’s inheritance plan.
Ultimately,Deng’s children have an economic interest in the family trust that holds Murdoch’s fortune. However,unlike his older children,they have no voting rights.
Round three:Wendi Deng with daughters Chloe and Grace.Reuters
The long and twisted story of how control of Murdoch’s company has progressed has understandably captured the imagination of the public for decades – and has become the torrid story on which theSuccession miniseries was loosely based.
As unseemly as the family’s entrails have been,Murdoch is currently managing a more acute public relations scandal.
His Fox faces a $US1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) legal claim from Dominion Voting Systems over allegations regarding the news network’s role in pushing Donald Trump’s false narrative that it conspired to rig the election.
Fox News has also found itself thoroughly,and publicly,embarrassed. Internal messages have been released in the course of the court case that lay bare how it attempted to ignore the actual news in its coverage of the 2020 election,and the contempt many people within the organisation have for the network’s viewers.
This public relations flogging is set to intensify when the matter begins its public hearing in April.
Presumably Smith will be on hand for comfort.
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