Retired Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch Marries for the Fifth Time at 93
93-year-old media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has tied the knot with 67-year-old retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova — marking his fifth marriage.
The engagement between the couple was announced in March, leading to a ceremony held at Rupert's estate and vineyard in Moraga, California.
Rupert Murdoch has tied the knot with retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova.
The wedding, attended by close friends and family, comes nine months after Murdoch passed on the chairmanship of his media empire to his son Lachlan.
Lachlan and his wife Sarah were among the wedding guests, along with News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson and wife Wang Ping, as well as Murdoch’s niece and The Herald & Weekly Times chairman Penny Fowler.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and wife Dana Blumberg were also in attendance.
The couple first met at a family gathering in 2023.
Murdoch donned a dark suit paired with a patterned yellow tie, while the bride wore a white dress and carried a small bouquet of Lily of the Valley flowers.
This is Murdoch's fifth marriage.
Before Zhukova, Murdoch had been married four times.
His first marriage was to Patricia Booker in 1956, who he later divorced after 11 years of marriage in 1967. They share one child, daughter Prudence.
Within the same year of divorcing Booker, Murdoch married his second wife, Scottish journalist Anna Maria Torv, with whom he has three children — Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James.
His third wife was Wendi Deng, whom he married in 1999, with whom he shares two daughters, Grace and Chloe. His fourth marriage was to supermodel Jerry Hall in 2016, which ended in 2022.
Shortly after divorcing Hall, Murdoch was briefly engaged to Ann Lesley Smith in the spring of 2023. It is believed that Deng, his third wife, introduced him to Zhukova.
It is believed Murdoch's third wife, Deng, introduced him to Zhukova.
Elena is a renowned molecular biologist known for her research on diabetes. She has conducted research at esteemed institutions worldwide, including the University of California, Los Angeles.
Originally from Moscow, she relocated to the US during the final years of the Soviet Union with her ex-husband, Alexander Zhukov, a billionaire energy investor. Their daughter, Dasha Zhukova, was formerly married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
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According to The Independent, the billionaire's latest marriage will unlikely have any significant impact on his business affairs since Fox Corp and News Corp are controlled by a family trust, in which all of the shares belong to him and his four eldest children — Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James.