What to Know Hollywood Life

Publish date: 2021-06-22

Rupert Murdoch, 91, is known for his career as a media tycoon. But he’s also a family man and has successfully raised seven children to adulthood. Rupert and his first wife, model Patricia Booker, married in 1956, had their only child Prudence in 1958 and later divorced in 1967. That same year, the newspaper powerhouse married journalist Anna Mann (Torv), and they had three children together between the late 60’s and early 70’s — Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James.

After divorcing Anna in 1999, he married Wendi Deng, with whom he had his two youngest children in the early 2000’s, Grace and Chloe. Wendi and Murdoch were divorced by 2013. In 2016, he married for the fourth time, to model (and Mick Jagger‘s ex) Jerry Hall, now 65. They didn’t have any children, and on June 22, 2022, the couple announced their split. Here’s everything to know about Rupert’s children from his first three marriages.

Prudence MacLeod

Prudence “Prue” Murdoch MacLeod was born in 1958 in Adelaide, South Australia, to Patricia, a former model and flight attendant, and Rupert. The billionaire’s eldest child has been married twice — to Crispin Odey, for only one year, and Alasdair MacLeod, whom she married in 1989. She had three children with her second husband, James, 33, Angus, 29, and Clementine, 26, all of Sydney.

She followed in her father’s footsteps, and according to her Wikipedia page, she has held directorial roles in Rupert’s News Corporation, and currently serves as a board member of Times Newspapers, Ltd. She’s also worked as a journalist and tabloid researcher for News of the World.

Prudence reportedly never chased after her father’s vast empire. “I’ve always been low-key and not many people know about me… I just love that,” she once told The Guardian. Together with Alasdair, she launched Macdoch Ventures. The company utilizes the family’s massive wealth to, as described on their official site, “support Australia & New Zealand’s late seed stage founders.”

Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth is Rupert’s only daughter from his marriage Anna, and the eldest of the three resulting from his second union. Born in August 22, 1968 in Sydney, she was named after her paternal grandma, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. She attended the Brearly School in New York and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Vassar College. She’s been married three times — first to Elkin Kwesi Pianim, from 1993-1998. The couple had two children, Cornelia Pianim (born 1994) and Anna Pianim, born in 1997 before their divorce in 1998.

She married Matthew Freud, PR executive and great grandson of Sigmund Freud, in 2001 and had two children with him, as well, though little is publicly known about them. They divorced in 2014, and she married artist Keith Tyson in 2017. Once favored to take over her father’s empire, Elisabeth founded production company Shine Group in 2001. She then made herself rich by selling it back to Rupert’s News Corp in 2011.

Lachlan Murdoch

Born on September 8, 1971 in London, England, Lachlan Keith Murdoch is Rupert’s first son with Anna and the younger brother of Elisabeth. His Scottish journalist mother and billionaire dad raised him in New York City, where his dad owned and ran the New York Post. James was educated at Massachusetts school Phillips Academy and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy from Princeton in 1994.

The British media heir is now executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, co-chairman of his father’s News Corp, and CEO of Fox Corporation. He also founded an Australian investment company. Lachlan’s longtime marriage to actress Sarah O’Hare began in 1999. The couple have three children. Sons Kalan Alexander and Aidan Patrick were born in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Their daughter, Aerin Elisabeth, once again drawing off the female family name, was born in 2010. Lachlan and his wife own multimillion dollar estates in New South Wales, Aspen Colorado, and Los Angeles.

James Murdoch

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch was born only a year after his older brother Lachlan, on December 13, 1972, in London. According to a 2021 report by Tatler, James no longer has a relationship with his powerful father. The youngest child of Rupert and Anna dropped out of Harvard after studying film and history, started a record label called Rawkus Records, and was ultimately CEO of 20th Century Fox from 2015-2019. He holds dual citizenship in the UK and US. He also had dealings with News Corp as a CEO for Europe and Asia, and later as a member of the board of directors, which he stepped down from in 2020.

James married Kathryn Hufschmid back in 2000, and the couple welcomed three children together. Anneka, born in 2003, Walter, born in 2004, and Emerson, born in 2008. The couple launched nonprofit Quadrivium Foundation together and have notably donated to the Clinton Foundation and the Biden campaign.

Grace & Chloe Murdoch

Grace (born 2001) and Chloe Murdoch (born 2003) are Rupert’s two youngest daughters, both born to his third wife, Wendi Deng. Tony Blair is reportedly Grace’s godfather. According to Tatler, they each stand to inherit billions after an extraordinarily lavish childhood. They were flower girls at dad’s fourth wedding to Jerry Hall and seem to have had a close relationship with their stepsister Georgia May Jagger — the famous daughter of Jerry and her ex-lover, legendary Rolling Stone front man Mick Jagger.