Tag: Elisabeth

  • Murdoch loses family trust case in Nevada

    Murdoch loses family trust case in Nevada

    MUMBAI: This is one battle he lost but he says he intends to fight it. 93 year old media baron Rupert Murdoch is one tough guy. Even at his age.

    He wanted to change the family trust, which gave his  four children equal voting rights to his empire, so that control would vest in his eldest son Lachlan’s hands who shared his right wing political beliefs. But he lost the case over the weekend when a Reno-Nevada probate commissioner  ruled against him and said he was acting in bad faith, when he tried to change the terms of the irrevocable trust and leave Lachlan in charge. 

    Murdoch owns 40 per cent of the voting stock in both Fox Corp and News Corp through the trust.  Upon his death James, Elisabeth , Lachlan and Prudence were to share control  of the trust equally. But the old man  wanted to change the terms of the trust  and put Lachlan, the CEO of Fox and chairman of News Corp  fully in charge upon his death. This was something his other children were not inclined to.

    Hence, they took their father to court in Nevada which was a probate court and was not open to the public. Earlier, a probate commissioner had told Murdoch senior that he could change the terms if what he was attempting to do was in good faith and in the best interests of his heirs. Murdoch senior had argued that were his other three children – Prudence, James and Elisabeth – to have voting power, they  would lean towards making his news outlets moderate which would harm their prospects as it would alienate the hard right wingers who supported it. 

    But the trio did not buy into this as they felt they would be left out and took their father and brother to court in Nevada. A case they won, following which they are now saying they would like mend and heal family relationships. 

    However, the family feud does not seem to have ended as the elder Murdoch said he was going to appeal against the probate commissioner’s decision.

  • Media mogul Rupert Murdoch gets engaged to Jerry Hall

    Media mogul Rupert Murdoch gets engaged to Jerry Hall

    MUMBAI: At a time when divorce rates are sky rocketing and the current generation is increasingly shying away from marriage as an institution there is one person who has proved his faith in the holy union quite strong. At the age of 84, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to actress and model Jerry Hall, who turns 60 in a year.

    The couple, who were seen together in Los Angeles last weekend while attending Golden Globe Awards, had declared this happy news in births, marriages and deaths section in the Times newspaper.

    This will be News Corp executive chairman Murdoch’s fourth marriage, while for Hall this will be her first under the law. Hall had a 23-year long  relationship with Mick Jagger with whom she has four children — Elizabeth, now aged 31, James, 29, Georgia May, 23, and Gabriel, 17. Jagger and Hall did have a marriage of sorts, which was later declared invalid by the High Court in London in 1999.

    On the other hand, Murdoch has six children from his three previous marriages namely James, Lachlan, Elisabeth, Chloe, Grace and Prudence. He divorced his third wife Wendi Deng, 46, in 2013.

    Murdoch was previously married to Patricia Booker, a former flight attendant from Melbourne, and then to Scottish journalist Anna Torv.