A Complete Guide to Rupert Murdoch’s Family: All About His Wives, Kids & More
Within minutes, Dynasty: The Murdochs compares its subjects — media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his kids — to the characters of Succession. Like the HBO show, there were four kids in the running to inherit Murdoch’s global media empire, which includes Fox Corporation. Unlike the show, the 95-year-old patriarch hasn’t died, but according to the New York Times, the events of the show inspired his children to start discussing how they would handle Murdoch’s death. Another difference? Murdoch has already picked a successor.
While charting the Australian media tycoon’s rise over the past 70 years, during which he amassed a net worth of approximately $22 billion, the Netflix docuseries lays out Murdoch’s complicated relationships with his ex-wives and kids. (They all declined to be interviewed, but it does pull from thousands of pages of documents, emails, and text messages that haven’t been seen before on screen.) As you watch, you can consult Swooon‘s guide to Murdoch’s six children — including who’s poised to inherit his business — as well as his past and current marriages.
Who are Rupert Murdoch’s wives?
Patricia Booker (1956–1967)
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Patricia Booker was a flight attendant and department store model from Melbourne. She married Murdoch when he was 25, so he wasn’t too far into his career yet. They welcomed a daughter, Prudence, two years into their marriage, and they divorced after 11 years together. Not much is known about the reasons for their split, but two years later, 9-year-old Prudence convinced Murdoch to seek custody of her after her mother remarried Freddie Maeder, per Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff. Booker reportedly died in 1998.
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Anna de Peyster (née Torv; formerly Murdoch and Mann) (1967–1999)
Murdoch was married to his second wife, Glasgow-born author Anna Torv, for 31 years. Per The Times, they met when Anna, then a journalist for the Sydney Daily Mirror, interviewed Murdoch. Once they married, she became involved in her husband’s business, officially joining the board of News Corporation in 1990. She also wrote three novels, including 1998’s Family Business, about a fictional media mogul’s family dynasty. She went on to have three kids: Lachlan, James, and Elisabeth.
She split from Murdoch in 1998 and divorced a year later, leading to one of the most expensive separations in history. Anna received a settlement of $1.7 billion, according to the BBC. She claimed she was forced off the News Corp. board afterward. “I wasn’t given a choice. I was told,” she told journalist David Leser, per The Independent. “Well, there’s no point being there if you’re no use, and it’s embarrassing to everyone else on the board. And my children were involved, too. My son was on the board. Lachlan. So I thought it was better to be dignified and resign.”
She added, “That was really what I was most anxious about, that my children and their inheritance would be protected. And that’s what took so long, between the separation and the divorce, to get that right.” Per the docuseries, Anna played a role in establishing the Murdoch Family Trust, giving the four Murdoch children equal voting rights over the business upon the patriarch’s passing.
A little over two weeks after the divorce was finalized, Murdoch married his third wife, Wendi Deng. The show claims that the mogul announced his divorce at a board meeting, during which he also said Anna relinquished her spot on the board. “He rang me and said, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve met this lady,'” Anna recalled in footage acquired by the show. “I couldn’t believe it, actually. I just thought, ‘You dirty old man.'”
In an interview with Australian Women’s Weekly, Anna reflected, “I began to think the Rupert Murdoch that I loved died a long time ago. Perhaps I was in love with the idea of still being in love with him. But the Rupert I fell in love with could not have behaved this way.”
Anna died in February 2026 at age 81.
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Wendi Deng (1999–2013)
In the late ’90s, Murdoch toured China to inspect his Asia business operations, where he met Wendi Deng. She worked at Murdoch’s Star TV in Hong Kong. It was her first job out of grad school. According to Vogue, Deng quit medical school and came to the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cal State Northridge. After getting a scholarship to Yale’s MBA program, she graduated in 1997, meeting Murdoch a short while later. (Anna said that her husband had an affair with Deng, the show explains, but Murdoch himself denied it.)
Deng, who went on to become a socialite, had two kids during her marriage: Grace (born in 2001) and Chloe (born in 2003). The reasons for the couple’s divorce in 2013 aren’t publicly known, though she spoke about the aftermath about two years later. Per Vogue, Wendi said that she and her ex coparent. “Rupert’s a very good father,” she explained. “Strict like me. We attend school conferences together. We both make sure they learn Chinese, do well in math. We make decisions together about how they use social media. We never want them to say, ‘Well, Mommy said this’ or ‘Daddy said that.’”
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Jerry Hall (2016–2022)
Model-turned-actress Jerry Hall was reportedly introduced to Murdoch through his family in Australia, and they were first linked romantically during the summer of 2015. Hall previously had a high-profile relationship with Mick Jagger, during which they welcomed four children.
Murdoch wrote on social media that he was “the luckiest AND happiest man in the world” when they married in 2016, but they divorced in 2022. In a joint statement, Murdoch reportedly ended their relationship via email that year. According to The Guardian, it said, “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage. We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do … My New York lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.”
Their attorneys said in a joint statement that the exes “remain good friends and wish each other the best for the future.”
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Elena Zhukova (2024-present)
Elena Zhukova grew up in Russia, and in the early ’90s, moved to the United States to work in diabetes research. Now a retired molecular biologist, Zhukova married the media titan in June 2024. They reportedly started dating not long after April 2023, when Murdoch ended his engagement to former dental hygienist Ann Lesley Smith.
Who are Rupert Murdoch’s kids?
Lachlan Murdoch
The Netflix doc describes Lachlan Murdoch as the “dutiful son” and “mini Rupert.” He held apprenticeships at The Times and The Sun in London before he went on to Princeton to study philosophy. By his early twenties, he was running his father’s Australian newspapers.
In 2005, Lachlan resigned from News Corp. amid disagreements with then-Fox News Channel head Roger Ailes, whom he felt his father had sided with over him, per Biography.com. After spending about a decade investing in Australian businesses, he returned to his family’s company, becoming co-chair of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox with his younger brother, James.
In September 2023, the Murdoch patriarch named Lachlan sole chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp, and he later attempted to modify the family trust to give Lachlan complete control of his business. In 2025, per NPR, Rupert and Lachlan bought out Prudence, Elisabeth, and James’ shares in Fox Corp. and News Corp, ensuring Lachlan will control both after his father’s death.
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Who is Lachlan Murdoch’s wife?
Lachlan married Australian model Sarah O’Hare in 1999. Since then, she’s become a TV personality, hosting several seasons of Australia’s Next Top Model.
Does Lachlan Murdoch have kids?
Lachlan and Sarah share sons Kalan and Aidan and daughter Aerin.
James Murdoch
The docuseries labels James as Murdoch’s “problem son.” He dropped out of Harvard and founded Rawkus Records, a hip-hop label that signed artists like Mos Def and Eminem. Per the BBC, it was acquired by News Corp. in 1998, and James became involved in his father’s companies. He served on the boards of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox before becoming the latter company’s co-chief operating officer in 2014. He was named its CEO in 2015.
James stepped down from his role when the company was sold to Disney in 2019. He resigned from News Corp. as a whole the following year. “My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,” he said, according to The New York Times. (“We’ve been arguing about politics since I was a teenager,” the more liberal-leaning James once told The New York Times about his father.)
He currently serves as the CEO of Lupa Systems, an investment firm that he founded in 2019.
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Who is James Murdoch’s wife?
James married Kathryn Hufschmid in 2000. She worked in marketing and public relations before turning to philanthropy. Alongside her husband, Kathryn runs the Quadrivium Foundation, which focuses on causes like voter participation and democracy reform.
Does James Murdoch have kids?
James and Kathryn have two daughters, Anneka and Emerson, and one son, Walter.
Elisabeth Murdoch
Elisabeth is the eldest child of Murdoch’s second marriage. She attended Vassar College and held some jobs within her father’s company before buying her own TV companies. She owned two NBC-affiliate stations before launching Shine, an independent company that produced shows like The Biggest Loser and MasterChef. According to the doc, Elisabeth’s actions proved herself in her dad’s eyes. In one clip, a journalist points out that her dad once said she’s the most similar to him out of all his children. “I don’t quite know what that means, to be most like my old man,” Elisabeth replied.
News Corp. purchased Shine in 2011, and Elisabeth took a seat on the board. In 2019, she launched another an entertainment production company called SISTER, which made shows like the BBC drama Broadchurch. She currently serves as executive chair of the company. Elisabeth is also the founder and Chair of Locksmith Animation.
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Who is Elisabeth Murdoch’s husband?
Elisabeth married Turner Prize-winning artist Keith Tyson in 2017. She was previously married to PR executive Matthew Freud from 2001 to 2014. Elkin Pianim, a fellow Vassar grad, was her first husband from 1993 to 1998.
Does Elisabeth Murdoch have kids?
Elisabeth has two daughters from her first marriage: Cornelia and Anna. With Freud, she shares Charlotte and Samson.
Prudence MacLeod (née Murdoch)
Prudence is the eldest child of Murdoch from his first marriage. Per the docuseries, she decided she didn’t want to be a major player in her family’s media empire, though she did briefly work for her dad’s News of the World tabloid, according to Vanity Fair. She also went on to serve on the boards of Times Newspapers and News Corporation. “It’s a big buzz, being around dad,” she says in a clip. “You know, it’s very exciting what he does, and I’m sure if I’d been around him longer, I may well have wanted to do that. But I always wanted to be independent.”
Who is Prudence MacLeod’s husband?
In 1986, Prudence married Crispin Odey, a London-based hedge-fund manager, and they divorced about a year later. In 1989, she met and married her current husband, financier Alasdair MacLeod. Per Vanity Fair, Murdoch offered MacLeod a job behind his daughter’s back, and he worked for the family business briefly.
Does Prudence MacLeod have kids?
With MacLeod, Prudence shares children James, Angus, and Clementine.
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Grace Murdoch
Grace was born to Murdoch and Wendi in 2001. She grew up in New York City, where she graduated from high school in 2020. She went on to attend Yale University — like her mom — and earn her degree in 2025. According to her LinkedIn, Grace works as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.
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Chloe Murdoch
The youngest child of the media titan is also one of the most private, with no public social media accounts aside from LinkedIn. She was born in New York City, like her sister, in 2003. She’s studying Symbolic Systems — which involves computer science, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and statistics — at Stanford University.
Dynasty: The Murdochs, Streaming Now, Netflix
