Rupert Murdoch has married Elena Zhukov, 67, his fifth wife, at the age of 93.
His engagement to retired molecular biologist Zhukova was confirmed in March, with the wedding now taking place at Moraga, Murdoch's estate and vineyard in California.
At a ceremony attended by family and close friends (nine months after handing over the presidency of his media empire to his son, Lachlan), Murodch, who met Zhukova at a family gathering in 2023, wore a dark suit and tie. printed yellow.
Meanwhile, the bride wore a white dress and held a small bouquet of lily of the valley flowers.
The wedding is Murdoch's fifth marriage. His previous marriage was to supermodel (and Mick Jagger's ex-wife) Jerry Hall from 2016 to 2022.
His first marriage, to stewardess Patricia Booker, occurred in 1956, and the couple divorced after 11 years of marriage in 1967. They share a daughter, Prudence.
The same year he divorced Booker, Murdoch married his second wife, Scottish journalist Anna Maria Torv, with whom he has three children: Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.
They divorced in 1999 after 32 years of marriage and, months later, Murdoch married Wendi Deng, with whom he shares two daughters, Grace and Chloe. The couple divorced in 2013.
After he and supermodel Hall divorced in the summer of 2022, Murdoch had a short-lived engagement to retired dental hygienist Ann Lesley Smith in the spring of 2023, but it ended after just two weeks.
Murdoch's third wife, Deng, is believed to have introduced him to Zhukova.
Zhukova is a distinguished molecular biologist who primarily studies diabetes and has brought her research to institutions around the world, including the University of California, Los Angeles.
Toward the end of the Soviet Union, she came to the United States from Moscow with her ex-husband, Alexander Zhukov, who eventually became a billionaire energy investor. Her daughter, philanthropist Dasha Zhukova, was married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich until 2017.
In September 2023, Murdoch announced that he would retire as a director of Fox Corp and News Corp.
However, Rupert said he planned to maintain his role as president emeritus while his son Lachlan transitioned to the role he left.
“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change,” he wrote in a letter to employees at the time. “But the time is right to take on different roles, knowing we have truly talented teams and a passionate and principled leader in Lachlan, who will become sole chairman of both companies.”
Murdoch's latest marriage is unlikely to have a significant impact on his business affairs, as Fox Corp and News Corp are controlled by a family trust, in which all shares belong to him and his four eldest children: Prudence, Elisabeth , Lachlan and Jaime.
