Rupert Murdoch the billionaire media tycoon whose life and legacy inspired a hit HBO show has announced he is set to retire.
The world-famous news titan, worth a reported £17.6billion, has announced he is set to stand down as chairman of his Fox and News Corp businesses.
The Australian-born 92-year-old news magnet launched his career nearly 70 years ago taking over newspapers Down Under after the death of his father Sir Keith Murdoch.
In 1968 the Melbourne-born antipodean bought the News of the World and a year later purchased the Sun creating a whole new red top market in the UK driven by celebrity scoops and sensational news headlines.
His acquisition of the Times and Sunday Times followed in 1981 and by the mid-90s Murdoch was influencing the political sphere with his papers reportedly first backing New Labour’s Tony Blair and then later supporting Davie Cameron’s Conservatives.
The billionaire Australian’s hold of the newspaper market in Britain took a hit in 2011. He and his son James provided testimony to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee over the phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World, which would later see the newspaper forced to close on July 11 of that year.
Despite mixed fortunes in the UK, during the height of 1980s largesse, Murdoch had already cracked America launching the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986 and the Fox News station 10 years later. Fox News is still the most popular news channel in the US today.
Murdoch’s American channels became the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC, with shows like “The Simpsons”. He is also the owner of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Murdoch has six children and has had four marriages, he called off an engagement to prospective fifth wife Ann Lesley Smith earlier this year.
His first marriage was in 1956 to air hostess Patricia Booker, mother of his eldest child Prudence. His other children are daughter Elisabeth and sons Lachlan and James with his second spouse, Glasgow-born Anna Mann.
His daughters Chloe and Grace were with his third wife Wendi Deng, who was 38 years his junior when they married in 1999. She had worked for his StarTV in Hong Kong.
Murdoch filed for divorce from her in 2013, and in 2016 he married American model Jerry Hall, who was 25 years younger than him. They divorced in August 2022.
The family life and chequered love life of Rupert Murdoch are understood to have been the inspiration for hit HBO show Succession, charting the lives of the Roy family, the owners of global media and entertainment conglomerate.
Scottish actor Brian Cox plays the central Murdochian figure in a billionaire family drama wrapped up in power struggles between siblings in the family and intrigue over business dealings.
In real life Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch will take over from his father as the head Fox and News Corp businesses now he has retired.
In a letter to staff, Rupert Murdoch said “the time is right for me to take on different roles”.
He added: “I am writing to let you all know that I have decided to transition to the role of chairman emeritus at Fox and News.
“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. Our companies are in robust health, as am I. Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges.
“We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them.”
