The media mogul was also briefly engaged to American model and radio host Ann Leslie Smith. (document)
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch will marry his girlfriend Elena Zhukova, his team announced on Friday. The 92-year-old tycoon will marry the 67-year-old Russian molecular biologist at his California wine estate in July. Ms Zhukova met Rupert Murdoch at a house party organized by one of his ex-wives.
This is Mr Murdoch’s sixth engagement and fifth wedding. The former chairman of Fox and News Corp. has been married to four women since 1956 and has six children. The media mogul was also briefly engaged to American model and radio host Ann Lesley Smith, 25 years his junior.
Here’s what we know about Rupert Murdoch’s many wives:
1. Patricia Booker
Mr Murdoch met Patricia Booker, an Australian model and stewardess, in the 1950s. The couple married in 1956 and welcomed their daughter, Prudence, two years later. In 1967, the couple separated after 11 years of marriage. Ms. Booker remarried soon after her divorce and little is known about her life. She died in 1998.
2. Anna Maria Tov
Journalist Anna Maria became Murdoch’s second wife just months after he divorced his first wife, Patricia Booker. The couple were married for 32 years before divorcing in 1999, making it the tycoon’s longest marriage.
In the past, Ms Maria has described her ex-husband as “extremely harsh, ruthless and determined” and said “my beloved Rupert Murdoch died a long time ago”.
The couple have three children: Elizabeth, 56, Lachlan, 53, and James, 52. While Lachlan took over as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. last year, all three are involved in family businesses.
3. Wendi Deng
In 1999, just two weeks after Murdoch divorced his second wife, he married Wendi Deng. In 1997, Murdoch met the 30-year-old Chinese citizen in Hong Kong, and they held a secret wedding on a yacht in New York.
Ms Deng is an entrepreneur, film producer and art collector who has two daughters from her previous marriage: Grace, 23, and Chloe, 21.
4. Jerry Hall
In 2016, Mr Murdoch was introduced to his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, an American model and actor, by one of his sisters. After they married, Murdoch tweeted that he felt “the luckiest and happiest man in the world.”
Before meeting him, Jerry Hall dated Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, with whom he had four children. She was married to Ms. Hall for six years and divorced in 2022.
