Rupert Murdoch married retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova on Saturday, a family spokesperson said, the fifth wedding for the media mogul.
Murdoch, 93, handed over the reins of his two companies Fox and News Corp to his elder son Lachlan in November, resolving a closely watched succession saga that has fuelled tabloid gossip and television dramas for decades.
His wedding to Zhukova, 67, is not expected to alter the family trust which controls about 40 per cent of the voting shares for both companies.
Murdoch and Zhukova married at the businessman’s California vineyard. Zhukova is the mother of philanthropist Dasha Zhukova Niarchos, whose first marriage to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich ended in divorce.
Australian-born Murdoch has six children from three of his previous marriages who share as beneficiaries of the trust, albeit with differing voting privileges. Last year, Murdoch was briefly engaged to former police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith, though the wedding was called off. He divorced the former model Jerry Hall in 2022 after six years of marriage.
Despite stepping back from official duties across his media empire, Murdoch is still seen as its figurehead.
Last month, Prince Harry failed in his attempt to bring legal action against Murdoch directly as part of his lawsuit, with other politicians and celebrities, over alleged phone-hacking claims against News Group Newspapers, part of the News Corp empire which publishes The Sun and used to publish the now-defunct News of the World.
Lachlan Murdoch, meanwhile, has been contending with flagging viewership and advertisers at Fox News through the US presidential primary season.
He told analysts last month that he was “disappointed” by trends in the spring but remained confident the 2024 election would ultimately boost the group’s local television networks through the remainder of the year.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/roundup-writereditor-loved-deals-tout-f5de51f85de145b2b1eb99cdb7b6cb84.jpg "I’m a Travel Writer, and Out of the 5 Million Prime Day Deals on Site, These Are the 12 I’m Shopping")
