Now will Murdoch share his £14bn fortune? Jerry Hall, 65, and media titan Rupert, 91, ‘divorcing after six years’… as friends reveal shock at ‘split’ days after supermodel was missing from his glitzy UK bash
- New York Times is reporting that Rupert Murdoch, 91, and Jerry Hall, 65, are calling quits on their marriage
- This will be Murdoch’s fourth divorce; before Hall he was married to and had two daughters with Wendi Deng
- Hall was previously unmarried, however she was in a 22-year relationship with rocker Mick Jagger until 1999
- Jerry Hall had four children with Rolling Stones star Jagger: Elizabeth, James, Georgia May, and Gabriel
- Murdoch, who is the CEO and Chairman of media group News Corp, has a whopping fortune of £14billion
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall are to divorce after six years together, it was reported last night.
Friends of the 91-year-old media tycoon and 65-year-old model were ‘surprised’ by the sudden split, The New York Times said.
The union represented a fourth marriage for Mr Murdoch, who is worth an estimated £14billion. It was technically a first marriage for Miss Hall, following a 22-year relationship – and four children – with Mick Jagger. She tied the knot with the Rolling Stones frontman on a beach in Bali in 1990, but this was annulled following their split in 1999.
It is not known whether Mr Murdoch and Miss Hall had signed a pre-nuptial agreement. However, Mr Murdoch did have one with his third wife, Wendi Deng.
Revellers at Mr Murdoch’s summer party earlier this week had noted Miss Hall’s absence. One of those present at the Serpentine Gallery in London on Monday evening said: ‘I did think it was odd that she wasn’t there. She’s a social butterfly and would generally be at these sort of functions.
‘I also noticed that none of her side of the family was there, nor her friends.’
Mr Murdoch and Miss Hall were last seen together in public in London in August 2021, when they were pictured arriving separately for a dinner. They are understood to have left together in a shared car.
The New York Times cited two sources for its story of the split. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
Friends told the newspaper that during the early days of his marriage to Miss Hall, Mr Murdoch was ‘happily devoting more time to his new wife’, leaving son Lachlan – his chosen successor at the helm of his media empire – and his other children to ‘assert themselves at the top of the corporate hierarchy’.
Mr Murdoch’s businesses include Sky TV and the Sun and Times newspapers. He also owns US television network Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, along with several ventures in his native Australia.
Wedding photo of Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch with their family. Back row, left to right: Georgia May Jagger, Laclan Murdoch, Prudence Murdoch, James Jagger, Gabriel Jagger, Elizabeth Murdoch, James Murdoch and Lizzie Jagger. Murdoch and Jerry Hall are seated in the middle of the picture with his daughters Chloe (left) and Grace (right) in the front row
Elizabeth Jagger, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Rupert Murdoch, Harvey Keitel and Daphne Kaster pose together
Jerry Hall and media businessman Rupert Murdoch bought a sprawling mansion to live in together in the Cotswolds
Australian media titan Rupert Murdoch is said to be divorcing his fourth wife Jerry Hall after just six years of marriage
The 91-year-old tied the knot with Hall, 65, in a low-key ceremony in London in March 2016. The couple is pictured shortly after the ceremony
The Mail on Sunday revealed in October 2015 that Murdoch and Hall were dating – days before they made their public debut as a couple at the rugby in Twickenham (pictured)
Murdoch and Hall were last seen together in public in London in August 2021, when they were pictured arriving separately at a dinner (seen). They are understood to have then left together in a shared car
After Murdoch and Hall tied the knot, the billionaire tweeted that he ‘felt like the luckiest and happiest man in the world’
Mr Murdoch met Miss Hall after his split from Miss Deng, 53, whom he divorced in 2014 after 14 years of marriage. An entrepreneur and investor, Miss Deng hit headlines in 2011 when she slapped a man who had thrown a custard pie at her husband at a parliamentary committee during the phone-hacking scandal.
When the couple split, there was speculation – denied by Miss Deng – that she had grown close to Tony Blair, the godfather of her and Mr Murdoch’s daughter Grace.
Mr Murdoch met Miss Hall in Australia in 2015. After weeks of speculation, the couple went public at the rugby world cup final at Twickenham in London that October. Mr Murdoch was photographed kissing Miss Hall on the cheek while she smiled broadly.
They made their first red carpet appearance together at the Golden Globes in 2016. Friends said at the time: ‘Rupert couldn’t be happier. He’s not acting like some dotty old man who’s in love with a teenager. He just seems really, really happy. It’s a wonderful thing’.
Miss Hall moved out of the £13million home in Richmond, south-west London, where she had lived since her split with Sir Mick after discovering he had fathered a child with Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez. Announcing his engagement on Twitter, Mr Murdoch called himself ‘the luckiest and happiest man in the world’. He presented Miss Hall with a 20-carat ring believed to be worth over £2.4million.
Their official wedding was a small affair, a week before Mr Murdoch’s 85th birthday, attended by a handful of close friends. Days later, they held a public ceremony at St Bride’s church in London’s Fleet Street with guests including Bob Geldof, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tom Stoppard, Tracey Emin and Michael Caine. Miss Hall wore an ice-blue silk Vivienne Westwood gown, believed to have cost about £8,000.
Friends said Miss Hall brought more ‘balance’ to her husband’s life after decades of focus on his businesses. Among the few signs of tension was when Miss Hall pulled out a West End revival of The Graduate. Mr Murdoch reportedly banned her from reprising the role of Mrs Robinson, which she had previously played in London and involves on-stage nudity.
Last year, Miss Hall attended Mr Murdoch’s 90th birthday party at Tavern on the Green, an upmarket restaurant in New York. She reportedly ‘doted’ on him during the festivities, which were attended by luminaries from business, sports and politics, a source said.
Mr Murdoch’s first wife was Patricia Booker, an Australian model. They divorced in 1965.
He was married to his second, Anna, a former newspaper reporter, for more than three decades until they split in 1999. Their divorce remains the second most expensive in history at a reported cost to Mr Murdoch of £1.5billion. Before dating Sir Mick, Miss Hall was in a relationship with singer Bryan Ferry and was the cover star of his 1975 album Siren.
Between them, Mr Murdoch and Miss Hall have ten children. Mr Murdoch’s are: Prudence, 63, from his first marriage; Elisabeth, 53, Lachlan, 50, and James, 49, from his second; and Grace, 21, and Chloe, 19, from his third. Miss Hall has four children, all with Sir Mick: Elizabeth, 38, James, 36, Georgia May, 30, and Gabriel, 24.
At Mr Murdoch’s summer party on Monday evening, the tycoon talked to Boris Johnson for 15 minutes. Other Cabinet members present included Priti Patel, Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid and Kemi Badenoch, the local government minister.
Mr Murdoch’s children Lachlan, Grace and Chloe were also present, a source said. A spokesman for Miss Hall could not be reached for comment last night.
A spokesman for Mr Murdoch declined to comment.
Mansions and £228MILLION ranch may be part of settlement
Speculation was rife last night over how the vast wealth of Rupert Murdoch would be affected by a divorce.
It is unclear how much of the media mogul’s £14billion fortune may go to Jerry Hall. Lawyer Mark Stephens, of the Howard Kennedy firm, said Mr Murdoch may have signed a ‘fairly generous’ pre-nuptial agreement.
This would have been drafted with the ‘anticipation of not interfering with the line of succession’, for the tycoon’s business empire. The Daily Mail understands any divorce is unlikely to affect the ownership of his companies.
Murdoch was married three times before he tied the knot with Hall. He wed his third wife Wendi Deng in June 1999 and the pair had two daughters together, Chloe and Grace (seen in 2019), before divorcing in 2013
News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng pose near the Statue of Liberty on June 25, 1999 (REUTERS/Stringer/Files)
However, properties the couple have acquired since marrying may be at stake. In 2019, they bought an £11.25 million Georgian property near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. A year later, it emerged they had snapped up Great Tew Manor – a ‘doer-upper’ in the Cotswolds which was earmarked for a £30 million restoration project.
Last December the couple spent £228 million on a 340,000-acre cattle ranch near Yellowstone Park in the US.
The family’s other properties include a ranch in California, a winery in Los Angeles, and a sheep and cattle farm in Mr Murdoch’s native Australia.
Miss Hall made a fortune from her career as a model, becoming the face of brands such as Revlon cosmetics.
She also had small roles in films including Batman. Her split from Mick Jagger left her with an estimated settlement of up to £18 million.
Fourth time divorce for him – but a first for her
Before marrying Jerry Hall, Rupert Murdoch had already been through three divorces, the first being to the late Patricia Booker.
For Miss Hall, the reported divorce would be a first for, although she shared a decades-long relationship with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, the pair were never legally married.
Mr Murdoch married Miss Booker in 1956 and they divorced in 1967. Their daughter Prudence worked for her father’s News of the World tabloid newspaper. Later in 1967, Mr Murdoch married Scottish journalist Anna Torv. This would be his longest marriage and they had three children: Elisabeth, Lachlan – his chosen heir – and James.
The couple divorced in 1999.
He married his second wife, journalist Anna Torv, in 1967, shortly after he divorced first wife Patricia Booker. Murdoch had three children with Anna: daughter Elisabeth (pictured left and right), and sons Lachlan and James (pictured right)
Jagger (seen with Hall in 1983) was said to have been left ‘seething’ over his supermodel ex’s marriage to Murdoch
Mr Murdoch married Wendi Deng, 38 years his junior, 17 days after his billion-dollar divorce to Anna was finalised. Miss Deng worked for Star TV, one of Mr Murdoch’s companies at the time.
They were married for 14 years and had two children together.
They divorced after an audit of Miss Deng’s email account uncovered memos to herself about Tony Blair’s ‘good body’ and ‘really, really good legs butt [sic]’. She denied accusations that she had become close to the former prime minister.
Before marrying Mr Murdoch, Miss Hall had four children with Sir Mick. The pair reached a financial settlement after 22 years together in 1999.
Miss Hall reportedly ended things after Sir Mick had a child with Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez, but the former couple remain close friends.
Before Sir Mick, Miss Hall’s partners included Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry.
THE LOVES IN THE LIVES OF A SUPERMODEL AND A BUSINESS MOGUL BEFORE THEY FOUND EACH OTHER
Murdoch was first married to Patricia Booker, a former flight attendant from Melbourne.
They had a daughter, Prudence, together but split in 1966 after 11 years of marriage.
A year after the divorce, he married Glasgow-born journalist Anna Torv, who he met when she was working with a newspaper in Sydney and had the chance to interview him.
The couple had three children together and were married for more than 30 years before ending their relationship in 1999. Details are sparse but it has been reported that the divorce cost him $1.7 billion.
Just weeks after the divorce, Murdoch married Wendi Deng, a businesswoman from China, who he met while she was an intern at a TV station owned by News Corp.
She was 38 years his junior and had previously been married to a man 30 years older than her.
Murdoch and Deng split in 2013 and he remained single until news of his relationship to former model Jerry Hall – 25 years his junior – was announced last year.
Meanwhile Hall was perhaps known for her relationship with Mick Jagger, who she was with for more than 20 years. However, she had a star-studded relationship history long before meeting him.
She moved to Paris as a model in the 70s and was reportedly the girlfriend of Bryan Ferry, appearing on the cover of his band Roxy Music’s first album Sirens.
They split five months later, but she also appeared in a 1976 video for his solo hit Let’s Stick Together.
By then she was one of the world’s most famous models and met Mick Jagger in 1976.
They have four children together and had an unofficial marriage ceremony in Bali in 1990, but split in 1999, because of his infidelity, Hall claimed.
After that, she had a number of younger lovers, starting with film producer George Waud, then London banker Tim Attias, 49.
She then met scientist Armand Leroi, 51, but the two split last year, before her relationship to Murdoch was announced when they were pictured at the Rugby World Cup in October 2015.
You’re in good company! As multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch is set to divorce wife Jerry Hall, a look at the world’s OTHER most expensive splits
1. Mackenize Bezos ($36 BILLION)
The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was rewarded for her decades of loyalty with a settlement that gave her 25 per cent of the couple’s Amazon stock. Far less then the 50 per cent she is legally entitled too, but far more than any other spouse has received in a divorce. As a result, she became the 22nd richest person in the world. The novelist was married to Bezos for 26 years, and by his side when he launched Amazon from their garage.
2. Melinda Gates (share of $130 BILLION)
Microsoft founder Bill Gates finalized his divorce from Melinda in August 2021, just three months after they announced they were splitting. The ex-couple, who were married for 27 years, did not have a prenup and instead divided their assets based on a separation contract with undisclosed terms. The settlement between Gates, whose net worth was then estimated at more than $130billion, and his ex Melinda could well have left her with over $65billion.
Bill Gates split from his wife Melinda (left) in August 2021 after 27 years of marriage, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos split from his wife Mackenzie Scott (center) in 2019. It was revealed earlier this month that Google founder Sergey Brin was splitting from wife Nicole Shanahan (right)
3. Nicole Shanahan (share of $93 BILLION)
News of Murdoch and Hall’s reported divorce comes just days after it was revealed that billionaire Google founder Sergey Brin was divorcing Shanahan, his wife of four years. Although the pair is fighting to keep details of their split under wraps, Brin is the seventh richest man in the world, with a net worth of $93 billion, suggesting that the couple’s divorce will be among the most expensive in modern history.
4. Jocelyn Wildenstein ($2.5 BILLION)
The Swiss-born socialite was the cat that got the milk in the years after her art dealer husband Alec paid out their record settlement. She then managed to squander that money thanks in large part to her love for cosmetic procedures and her affinity for domesticating rare animals. In May 2018, Wildenstein filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection according to federal court papers which were obtained by DailyMail.com. It was a shocking turn of events for Wildenstein, who first became a fixture in the New York press around the time of her split as she bragged about the high costs of her lavish lifestyle and penchant for plastic surgery. Two decades later, the woman who once purchased a capuchin monkey as a pet finds herself with no checking or savings accounts, no retirement fund or pension plans and no investments according to her filing.
5. Anna Murdoch ($1.7 BILLION)
The woman who was by Murdoch’s side as he rose to the top of the media world received a small portion of his fortune after their 1999 divorce. It was a shocking split to their children Elizabeth, Lachlan and James, especially when it was learned that their father had been having an affair with soon-to-be-fourth wife Wendi Deng. That all came to a head at Lachlan’s wedding to wife Sarah, with Anna informing her estranged husband that his new wife was not to attend the nuptials. Deng and Murdoch married almost immediately after he finalized his divorce from his second wife.
Socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein (left) got $2.5 billion when she split from her husband Alec, while publishing billionaire Rupert Murdoch handed over $1.7 billion to his ex-wife Anna (right) in their divorce settlement
6. Slavica Ecclestone ($1.2 BILLION)
The Croatian model split from her business magnate beau after 23 years of marriage in 2009, and walked off with a sizable chunk of the Formula One chief’s fortune. That union lasted longer than many initially imagined it would in account of the couple’s difference in age (28 years) and height (Slavica is a foot taller than Bernie). Slavica also spoke no English, while Bernie only spoke English. The couple welcomed two daughters during their marriage, Tamara and Petra, who have also made waves with some of the big purchases they have made with their father’s money. Petra notably bought the former residence of Aaron and Candy Spelling in Beverly Hills, which for a time was the largest private home in the United States. In the wake of that split, Bernie married a younger and shorter woman.
7. Elaine Wynn ($1 BILLION)
Elaine Wynn helped her husband Steve build his empire, and she was sure to take some of it with her when she left. Her role in the company has been vital ever since, and on Thursday she was in Massachusetts testifying about her split and why she failed to disclose a settlement her husband made with a woman who accused him of sexual assault.
8. Sue Ann Arnall ($974.8 BILLION)
The wife of Harold Hamm was pushed out of the top five with the addition of Bezos, but still made her mark thanks to her ex-husband paying out his entire settlement in one single check. Arnall had appealed that ruling but lost because she had cashed the check. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled in favor of a motion filed by Hamm, chief executive officer of oil company Continental Resources Inc, to dismiss Arnall’s appeal. Earlier that month, Arnall had cashed Hamm’s check for $975 million, the vast majority of the lower court’s award in the case. The majority of the justices said Arnall also took possession of the marital property awarded to her. Those actions, the court ruled, caused her to forfeit her right to appeal the judgment.
Croatian model Slavica Ecclestone split from her business magnate beau Bernie (left) after 23 years of marriage in 2009, and walked off with a sizable chunk of the Formula One chief’s fortune, while Wynn Resorts owner Steve Wynn (center) and oil company CEO Harold Hamm (right) also endured costly divorces
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