Billionaire media baron Rupert Murdoch is divorcing Jerry Hall after six years of marriage, it was reported today.
This will be 91-year-old Murdoch’s fourth divorce – and his shortest marriage – however Hall, 65, had not previously been married before tying the knot with the media titan, who is 23 years her senior, in March 2016.
She was previously in a long-term relationship with Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger, with whom she shares four children, however the two never officially wed during their 22-year relationship.
Murdoch, who is worth $17.7 billion, has six children in total: daughter Prudence MacLeod, now 64, with his first wife Patricia Booker, daughter Elisabeth, now 53, and sons Lachlan, now 50, and James, now 49, with his second wife Anna Mann, and daughter Grace, now 21, and Chloe, now 19, who he shares with his third wife Wendi Deng.
Details of Murdoch and Hall’s divorce have not yet been shared, with the New York Times simply reporting that it had spoken with ‘two people with knowledge of the decision’, however the couple do not share any children together.
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Murdoch and Hall for comment.
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
The pair tied the knot in London in March 2016 in a very low-key ceremony at Spencer House, which overlooks Green Park, after a whirlwind five-month romance.
At the time, the media tycoon expressed his joy over the union, tweeting shortly after the ceremony concluded that he would be taking a break from social media in order to enjoy newlywed life.
‘No more tweets for ten days or ever!’ he wrote. ‘Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world.’
One day after their official ceremony, the couple – whose unlikely romance made headlines the world over – hosted a more lavish affair, which was attended by all ten of their children.
Hall’s two daughters and Murdoch’s two youngest daughters acted as bridesmaids, while the media mogul’s son Lachlan was understood to have presided over the pair’s first ceremony.
Following the wedding celebrations, Hall shared a photo of the then-newlyweds posing with all of their kids, writing alongside it: ‘My beautiful family!’
After Murdoch and Hall tied the knot, the billionaire tweeted that he ‘felt like the luckiest and happiest man in the world’
Hall’s marriage to Murdoch marked her first official walk down the aisle – although she and Jagger did have an unofficial marriage ceremony in Bali in 1990, however that was deemed void by the UK high court following their split.
Murdoch had exchanged wedding vows on three occasions before he wed Hall.
He married his first wife, former flight attendant Patricia, in 1956, however the pair split in 1967, nine years after the birth of their only child, Prudence.
That same year, he tied the knot with his second wife, Anna, a Glasgow-born journalist to whom he was married for 32 years, before their divorce in 1999.
As part of their divorce settlement, Anna was awarded $1.7 billion, including $10 million in cash, according to CNBC.
Murdoch went on to marry Wendi just 17 days after he divorced second wife Anna. At the time of their wedding Murdoch was 68, while Wendi was just 30 years old.
That marriage lasted 14 years, before it was announced that the pair were divorcing, with a News Corp spokesperson revealing in June 2013 that their union had been ‘irretrievably broken for more than six months’.
The couple’s wedding was attended by all ten of their children, including Murdoch’s two sons, Lachlan (left) and James (right)
Murdoch’s youngest two daughters Chloe and Grace (left) and Hall’s two daughters Georgia May and Elizabeth (right) served as bridesmaids during the ceremony
Murdoch and Hall began quietly dating in 2015, with The Mail on Sunday revealing in October of that year that they had begun their romance after being introduced in Australia by one of Murdoch’s sisters and his niece.
The couple made their relationship public on October 31 when they were seen for the first time together at the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham in London.
They then attended the Golden Globes in Los Angeles in January 2016 – days before Murdoch announced that the pair were engaged.
Murdoch popped the question with a 10-carat marquise diamond engagement ring that was said to be worth up to $3.5 million.
Although details of the couple’s divorce settlement or paperwork have yet to be made public, it is likely that this split will be among one of the most expensive in the world – a less-than honorable title that Murdoch has already earned in the past, thanks to his $1.7 billion divorce from second wife Anna.
Hall has never before been divorced, although she went through a legal battle with her ex-partner Jagger when they split in 1999 over whether or not their 1990 Bali wedding ceremony had been official.
The former supermodel, who was born in Texas, said she had thought that the marriage was ‘valid’ and that – as a result – the pair would need to go through official divorce proceedings. However, a high court judge in the UK declared that the ceremony was not valid under British or Indonesian law and he therefore declared the marriage null and void.
In 2005, Hall opened up about her feelings over Jagger’s alleged womanizing during their relationship, telling the Evening Standard that she ‘forgave, and forgave, and forgave and forgave to the point where it wasn’t very healthy at all’, adding: ‘Sure, he wasn’t a great husband, and I could gripe and grouse, but I think that’s old hat.’
She also confessed at the time that she ‘still loved’ Jagger, but that their relationship had been so ‘unhealthy’, it had left her ‘so depressed’ and ‘unhappy’.
‘I still love him. But it made me so unhappy. I was unable to do anything because I felt so depressed,’ she said. ‘If you’re in an unhealthy relationship, it’s bad for your self-esteem. You have so many ups and downs that you can’t be consistent…’
At the time of Hall and Murdoch’s wedding in 2016, sources reported that Jagger was ‘seething’ over the union, with one friend saying that the rocker ‘had a real problem’ with the idea of the Australian media tycoon becoming a part of his family.
‘This means that Rupert Murdoch is going to become a part of his extended family, and Mick has a real problem with that,’ the insider claimed.
News of Murdoch’s latest divorce comes just over four years after the media baron suffered a horrific fall on his son Lachlan’s yacht, which is understood to have been so severe that some of his family members were left fearing that he would not ever recover from his injuries.
According to the New York Times, the January 2018 incident occurred in the middle of the night, when the billionaire slipped and fell while making his way to the bathroom.
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
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)
Hall was in a 22-year relationship with Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger from 1977 until 1999. The pair (pictured in 1983) never officially married however they share four children together
He was then airlifted from the Caribbean to a hospital in Los Angeles with broken vertebrae and a spinal hematoma.
Immediate surgery was required for the vertebrae, while the hematoma threatened to leave Murdoch paralyzed or possibly even kill the head of News Corp.
In April 2019, the New York Times reported that Hall had been left in such ‘a panic,’ and was so concerned about her husband’s situation that she made the decision to call his adult children and tell them to come to Los Angeles immediately, so that they could prepare to make peace with their father.
However, within days of the accident, Murdoch sent an email out to the entire News Corp organization, insisting that he was ‘well on the road to recovery’.
Jagger (seen with Hall in 1982) was said to have been left ‘seething’ over his supermodel ex’s marriage to Murdoch
Vanity Fair, which obtained a copy of the email, reported that it read: ‘I hope you all are having a great start to 2018. I suspect it has been better than mine.
‘I am writing to tell you that last week I had a sailing accident and suffered a painful back injury. While I am well on the road to recovery, I have to work from home for some weeks. In the meantime, you’ll be hearing from me by email, phone and text!’
The Times reported that Murdoch had previously suffered two bad falls prior to the incident on Lachlan’s yacht.
Murdoch is said to have fallen once while exiting a stage and another time tripped on the carpet of a hotel in San Francisco, but in both cases the family managed to prevent the news from leaking to the press.
His four oldest children traveled to Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center after the 2018 fall, flying in from London, New York and the Caribbean to be at their father’s bedside.
The surgery was a success and after seeing his children around his bed, Murdoch is understood to have joked that he had no idea how serious his situation was at the time until he saw the four in his hospital room.
Frivolity aside however, the accident will no doubt have sent serious shockwaves through the Murdoch family – not only as a result of the potential emotional heartache associated with the loss of a loved one, but also because it will have prompted many questions about which of his children would have taken over his position at the head of News Corp.
Murdoch has enlisted several of his children to join his multi-billion-dollar media company over the years – and the family’s allegedly cut-throat dynamics are said to have served, at least in part, as the inspiration for HBO’s hit series Succession.
His relationship with his two eldest sons, Lachlan and James, was once again thrust into the pop culture spotlight with the dramatic retellings of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment allegations – which were brought to light in 2016, and were then retold on the small and big screens in 2019, both in Hulu series The Loudest Voice and in blockbuster movie Bombshell.
While Murdoch once counted all four of his adult children – Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James – as employees of News Corp, however now only one remains, his son oldest son Lachlan.
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.
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.
