Murdochs reach an 鈥榓micable鈥 divorce settlement
Print Edition
Media baron Rupert Murdoch and his Chinese-born wife said they were parting with “mutual respect” after telling a judge yesterday they had reached a divorce deal.
The chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox and his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng Murdoch, shook hands and briefly hugged after a brief proceeding in a Manhattan court. The terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an amicable settlement of all matters relating to our divorce,” the two said in a statement. “We move forward with mutual respect and a shared interest in the health and happiness of our two daughters.”
Supreme Court Justice Ellen Gesmer told the couple she was “glad that you have been able to resolve these matters amicably.” The two answered Gesmer’s questions about whether they understood and approved an agreement ending their marriage. Asked whether he was satisfied with the agreement, Rupert Murdoch replied: “Yes, your honor.”
The divorce will end a third marriage for the 82-year-old, who got his start in his family’s newspaper business in his native Australia and built a global media conglomerate. Forbes put his and his family’s wealth at US$13.4 billion in September.
News Corp split this year into two companies: the journalism and publishing portion, still called News Corp, and the more profitable film and TV unit, 21st Century Fox.
The divorce won’t affect control of the companies or the succession plan for them. Murdoch controls them through a family trust that benefits his four children from previous marriages — Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. The latter three have had active roles in the companies.
Upon Murdoch’s death, all four will have an equal say in what happens to the roughly 38 percent voting stock the trust holds in both companies.
He and Wendi, 44, have two school-age daughters, Grace and Chloe. They are beneficiaries of 8.7 million non-voting shares being held in a separate trust. Their mother is not a shareholder, according to the insider.
Wendi is a Yale graduate who worked as a junior executive at News Corp’s subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong, where she met her husband at a 1997 cocktail party. She married the media mogul in 1999 aboard Murdoch’s private yacht in New York.
Wendi literally leaped into the spotlight when she jumped up to smack a protester who was throwing a cream pie at her husband during a 2011 British parliamentary hearing into phone hacking by News Corp newspapers.
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