Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American businessman, media proprietor, and investor who built one of the world's largest media empires spanning newspapers, television, film, and digital platforms across five continents. As the founder and long-time chairman of News Corporation and Fox Corporation, Murdoch revolutionized tabloid journalism, created the modern conservative media ecosystem with Fox News, and wielded enormous political influence in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia for over six decades. His career has been marked by aggressive expansion, ideological warfare, spectacular scandals—including the phone hacking crisis that brought down a 168-year-old newspaper—and a Shakespearean succession drama involving five marriages and six children competing for control of a $28 billion empire.
Murdoch retired as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp in November 2023 at age 92, handing control to his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch, though his attempt to rewrite his family trust to cement Lachlan's power sparked an extraordinary legal battle with three of his other children. The resulting court case in Nevada, with sealed testimony and accusations of "bad faith," played out like a real-life version of HBO's "Succession" before being resolved in September 2025 with a $3.3 billion settlement that gave Lachlan undisputed control while buying out his siblings. With a net worth of approximately $19.5 billion, Murdoch remains one of the most consequential—and controversial—figures in the history of global media.
Early life and education
Keith Rupert Murdoch was born on 11 March 1931 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the second of four children of Sir Keith Murdoch and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (née Greene). His father was a renowned war correspondent who became a powerful newspaper publisher and general manager of the Herald and Weekly Times publishing company. His mother, a philanthropist, would live to 103 and become one of Australia's most admired public figures.
Murdoch grew up in privilege on a large estate outside Melbourne, educated at elite schools including Geelong Grammar School, one of Australia's most prestigious boarding schools. He showed early intellectual promise, winning a scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). At Oxford, Murdoch was politically active on the left, serving as secretary of the university's Labour Club and keeping a bust of Lenin in his rooms—views he would later renounce as he became one of the world's most influential conservative media figures.
His father died suddenly in 1952 when Rupert was just 21 and still at Oxford. Sir Keith had intended to leave his media empire to his son, but death duties and estate complications forced the family to sell most of the assets. Rupert inherited only two newspapers: the Adelaide News and the Sunday Mail. It was a modest inheritance, but it was enough. Murdoch returned to Australia in 1953, cutting short his Oxford education to take over the family business, and immediately began plotting an expansion that would eventually span the globe.
Personal life
Marriages and family
Rupert Murdoch has been married five times and has six children and thirteen grandchildren. His romantic life has been as dramatic and publicized as his business dealings, with each marriage marking a different era of his empire-building.
Patricia Booker (1956-1967)
In 1956, at age 25, Murdoch married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne. They married in Australia and had one daughter:
- Prudence Murdoch (born 1958) – later Prudence MacLeod after marriage; maintains a relatively private life and served as a board member of Times Newspapers Ltd
The marriage lasted 11 years before ending in divorce in 1967. Little is publicly known about how they met or the circumstances of their relationship, as this predated Murdoch's international media prominence.
Anna Torv (1967-1999)
In 1967, the same year his first marriage ended, Murdoch married Anna Torv, a journalist of Scottish descent. This was his longest and perhaps most consequential marriage, lasting 32 years and producing three of his most prominent children:
- Elisabeth Murdoch (born 1968) – media executive who built Shine Group before selling it to News Corp for $673 million; became a television production powerhouse in her own right
- Lachlan Murdoch (born 1971) – current chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation and executive chairman of News Corp; his father's chosen successor
- James Murdoch (born 1972) – former News Corp executive who broke with his father over editorial policies at Fox News and has become a critic of the family empire's conservative politics
Anna was a stabilizing force during Murdoch's most aggressive expansion years, as he conquered first Australia, then the UK, and finally America. She received a divorce settlement of $1.2 billion in assets when they divorced in 1999, one of the largest divorce settlements in history at that time. Anna later stated bluntly: "I think that Rupert's affair with Wendi Deng was the end of the marriage."
Wendi Deng (1999-2013)
Murdoch met Wendi Deng at a News Corporation company party in Hong Kong in 1997. She was 28, he was 66. Deng was a recent Yale School of Management graduate and newly appointed vice-president of his STAR TV network in China. The relationship began while Murdoch was still married to Anna, and the affair became a public scandal.
Just 17 days after his divorce from Anna was finalized in 1999, the 68-year-old Murdoch married 30-year-old Deng on his yacht in New York Harbor. The speed and circumstances of the marriage shocked even his jaded media industry peers. Together they had two daughters:
- Grace Murdoch (born 2001)
- Chloe Murdoch (born 2003)
The marriage lasted 14 years before Murdoch filed for divorce in 2013, reportedly after discovering intimate emails between Deng and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a close family friend. Deng denied the affair, but the damage was done. The divorce was finalized later that year.
The daughters from this marriage have significant financial stakes through family trusts, but controversially, Murdoch's original family trust structure granted voting rights only to his four oldest children (Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James), excluding Grace and Chloe from control of the business empire. This arrangement would later fuel the succession battle that erupted after his retirement.
Jerry Hall (2016-2022)
In January 2016, Murdoch announced his engagement to Jerry Hall, the legendary supermodel and actress best known as the longtime partner of Mick Jagger, with whom she had four children. Hall was 59, Murdoch was 84. They married on 4 March 2016 at St Bride's Church on Fleet Street in London, a symbolic location given Fleet Street's historic association with British journalism.
The marriage was seen as Murdoch's attempt to settle into a companionate partnership in his final years, with Hall bringing glamour and social connections to his media-mogul power. However, the relationship soured, and Murdoch filed for divorce in June 2022 after six years of marriage. The divorce was finalized in August 2022, with a financial settlement undisclosed but presumed to be substantial given Murdoch's wealth.
Ann Lesley Smith (engagement called off, 2023)
During Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in March 2023, the 92-year-old Murdoch proposed to Ann Lesley Smith, a 66-year-old former dental hygienist and conservative radio host whose late husband had been a country music singer and chicken magnate. The engagement made headlines as Murdoch's apparent final attempt at matrimonial happiness.
However, just two weeks after announcing the engagement in April 2023, Murdoch abruptly called it off. Reports suggested he had concerns about Smith's outspoken evangelical religious views and her tendency to speak to the media without consulting him first—a cardinal sin for someone marrying into the famously secretive Murdoch empire. The speed of the engagement and cancellation sparked speculation about Murdoch's judgment in his tenth decade.
Elena Zhukova (2024-present)
On 1 June 2024, at age 93, Murdoch married for a fifth time. His bride was Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired molecular biologist and the ex-wife of Russian-British energy billionaire Alexander Zhukov. Zhukova is also the mother-in-law of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich through her daughter Dasha Zhukova's previous marriage.
The wedding took place at Murdoch's Moraga Estate vineyard in Bel Air, California. Notably absent from the ceremony were three of his children—James, Elisabeth, and Prudence—who were by then estranged from their father due to the bitter succession battle playing out in Nevada courts. Only Lachlan and his two youngest daughters, Grace and Chloe, attended the wedding, a visible manifestation of the family schism.
Career
Building the Australian empire (1953-1968)
When Murdoch took over the Adelaide News in 1953 at age 22, he immediately demonstrated the aggressive tabloid instincts that would define his career. He slashed costs, increased sensational crime coverage, and introduced topless models to the pages—tactics that boosted circulation dramatically. Within a few years, he had turned the struggling paper profitable and used the proceeds to begin acquiring more Australian publications.
In 1960, Murdoch founded Australia's first national newspaper, The Australian, a broadsheet aimed at elite readers to complement his tabloid holdings. He acquired the Sydney Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, building a stranglehold on Australian media markets. By the late 1960s, Murdoch controlled newspapers in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, making him the dominant media proprietor in Australia.
Conquering Britain (1969-1985)
In 1969, Murdoch made his first international acquisition, purchasing the struggling News of the World tabloid in London. He immediately applied his Australian tabloid formula—sex, crime, scandal, and celebrity gossip—and circulation soared. The following year, he acquired The Sun, a failing broadsheet, and transformed it into a tabloid featuring sensational headlines and topless "Page 3 girls." The Sun became Britain's best-selling newspaper, minting money and giving Murdoch enormous influence over British politics.
His British expansion continued with purchases of The Times and The Sunday Times in 1981, adding establishment credibility to his tabloid empire. These acquisitions required Murdoch to become a British citizen (later surrendered when he became an American citizen to comply with U.S. broadcast ownership laws). He broke the power of British print unions in 1986 by moving production to a new plant in Wapping and firing 6,000 workers, a controversial move that transformed the economics of British journalism but earned him lasting enmity from labor movements.
American expansion and Fox Broadcasting (1973-1996)
Murdoch entered the American market in 1973 by purchasing the San Antonio Express-News, followed by the New York Post in 1976, which he turned into a sensationalist tabloid that became required reading in New York despite persistent financial losses. He acquired the Boston Herald in 1982 and founded Star magazine, a celebrity tabloid.
The breakthrough came in 1985 when Murdoch purchased 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and several television stations, becoming a U.S. citizen to comply with FCC regulations prohibiting foreign ownership of U.S. broadcast assets. In 1986, he launched the Fox Broadcasting Company, creating America's fourth broadcast television network to compete with ABC, NBC, and CBS. Fox's programming strategy—younger-skewing shows like "The Simpsons," "Married... with Children," and eventually "American Idol"—disrupted the television establishment and proved that the Big Three networks' dominance could be challenged.
The crowning achievement came in 1993 when Fox secured NFL broadcasting rights for $1.6 billion, a shocking bid that exceeded CBS's offer by $400 million. The NFL deal instantly legitimized Fox as a major network and triggered a realignment of American television. Within a few years, Fox was competing on equal footing with the established networks.
Fox News and political influence (1996-2023)
In 1996, Murdoch launched Fox News Channel under the leadership of former Republican media consultant Roger Ailes. The tagline "Fair and Balanced" was deliberately provocative, implying that other news networks were neither. Fox News pioneered a format of conservative-leaning opinion programming mixed with news coverage, creating a television experience that validated conservative viewpoints and attacked liberal positions.
Fox News filled a market vacuum—there was no major conservative cable news network before its launch—and grew explosively. By 2002, it had surpassed CNN in ratings. By the 2010s, it utterly dominated cable news, with primetime hosts like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson drawing audiences far larger than MSNBC or CNN. Fox News became the most-watched cable news network for 20 consecutive years, generating billions in profit and reshaping American political discourse.
The network's influence on Republican politics proved enormous. Fox News hosts could make or break political careers, and Republican politicians treated appearances on Fox as essential campaign activities. The network's promotion of Tea Party conservatism in the Obama years, embrace of Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016, and continued support through his presidency made Fox News an arm of Republican strategy as much as a news organization. Critics accused the network of spreading misinformation, particularly around election fraud claims in 2020 and COVID-19 coverage, accusations that would later result in massive legal settlements.
Murdoch personally maintained close relationships with political leaders across the spectrum, from Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in the UK to Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump in the US. His newspapers' endorsements were courted by politicians, and his influence on public opinion made him arguably more powerful than many elected officials.
Corporate restructuring and digital struggles (2013-2023)
In 2013, in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal, Murdoch split News Corporation into two separate publicly traded companies: 21st Century Fox (holding film and television assets) and News Corp (holding publishing and newspaper assets). This split was designed to protect the more valuable entertainment assets from the legal and reputational damage of the journalism scandals.
In 2017, Murdoch made a massive bet on consolidation by agreeing to sell most of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets to The Walt Disney Company for $71.3 billion, completed in 2019. The sale included 20th Century Fox film studio, FX Networks, and National Geographic, but excluded Fox News, Fox Business, and the Fox broadcast network, which were spun into a new Fox Corporation with Murdoch as chairman.
The Disney deal was partly motivated by Murdoch's recognition that the streaming era required scale his company couldn't achieve independently. However, it also represented a generational shift—Rupert was in his late 80s, and the sale converted speculative media assets into certain cash, simplifying the empire for succession purposes.
Throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, Murdoch's properties struggled to adapt to digital disruption. News Corp's newspaper business faced declining circulation and advertising revenue. Attempts to launch digital subscription models had mixed success. The failure to build a streaming competitor to Netflix (News Corp sold its stake in Hulu as part of the Disney deal) represented a strategic miss that left Fox Corporation smaller and more dependent on linear television just as cord-cutting accelerated.
Retirement and succession
On 21 September 2023, Murdoch announced he was stepping down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, transitioning to the role of chairman emeritus. Lachlan Murdoch assumed the chairmanship of both companies, the culmination of a long-planned succession. At 92, Rupert finally acknowledged that the time had come to hand over day-to-day control, though he remained deeply involved in strategic decisions and continued to maintain an office and influence.
The retirement announcement, however, was just the beginning of the real succession drama.
The Nevada trust battle
In December 2023, just months after his official retirement, Rupert Murdoch filed a petition in Nevada probate court to amend the Murdoch Family Trust, an irrevocable trust established in 1999 that controlled the family's stakes in Fox Corporation and News Corp. The trust originally granted equal voting rights to Murdoch's four oldest children: Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James (the two youngest daughters, Grace and Chloe, had economic interests but no voting power).
Murdoch's petition sought to change the trust to give Lachlan exclusive voting control, effectively disinheriting the other three siblings of their governance rights while maintaining their economic stakes. Murdoch argued this was necessary to protect the conservative editorial bent of Fox News and the family's newspaper holdings, claiming that if control were shared equally among four siblings with divergent political views, the companies could be torn apart by ideological conflicts.
James Murdoch, in particular, had become a vocal critic of Fox News's editorial direction, especially its coverage of climate change denial and support for Donald Trump. He resigned from the News Corp board in 2020, citing "disagreements over certain editorial content." Elisabeth had her own successful media career and didn't need the family empire. Prudence had remained relatively neutral but didn't share Lachlan's hardline conservative views.
The court proceedings were held in Reno, Nevada in September 2024, conducted in secret with sealed testimony and closed courtrooms. The choice of Nevada was strategic—the state has favorable trust laws and strict privacy protections. But details leaked to the press, painting a picture of a family in bitter conflict.
In December 2024, Nevada probate commissioner Edmund Gorman issued a stunning ruling: Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had acted in "bad faith" in attempting to change the family trust. The sealed opinion, obtained by The New York Times, found that the effort to disinherit three siblings of their voting rights was improper and violated the spirit of the irrevocable trust. The ruling was a devastating rejection of Rupert's final attempt to shape his legacy.
However, legal battles can be resolved with money. On 8 September 2025, the Murdoch family announced a $3.3 billion settlement that resolved the succession dispute. Lachlan would gain sole control of News Corp and Fox Corporation, while Prudence, Elisabeth, and James—described in legal filings as "the departing members"—would each receive approximately $1 billion for their shares. The three siblings cashed out, walking away from the family business entirely.
The settlement meant Lachlan's control was now undisputed, fulfilling Rupert's ultimate goal even if not through the mechanism he had initially sought. It also formalized the estrangement—James, Elisabeth, and Prudence had not attended Rupert's 2024 wedding to Elena Zhukova, and the settlement ensured they would never be reconciled through the business that had defined the family for three generations.
Controversies
The News of the World phone hacking scandal
The phone hacking scandal that erupted in 2011 was the most damaging crisis of Murdoch's career, destroying a 168-year-old newspaper, resulting in dozens of arrests, and forcing Murdoch to close News of the World, his original British acquisition and one of the country's most-read tabloids.
The scandal centered on the widespread practice at News of the World of hiring private investigators to illegally hack into the voicemails of celebrities, politicians, crime victims, and their families. For years, the practice was dismissed as limited to a single "rogue reporter," but investigations revealed it was systemic, known to editors and executives, and covered up through payoffs and destroyed evidence.
The crisis reached a moral breaking point in July 2011 when The Guardian revealed that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, working for News of the World, had hacked the voicemail of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl who had been abducted and murdered in 2002. Worse, Mulcaire allegedly deleted messages to make room for new ones, giving Dowler's family false hope that she was alive and checking her messages. The revelation sparked a public outrage that went far beyond previous hacking scandals.
Additional revelations showed that phones of families of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, and numerous celebrities had also been hacked. Advertiser boycotts immediately followed. Within a week, Murdoch made the extraordinary decision to close News of the World entirely after 168 years and 8,674 editions. The final edition was published on 10 July 2011.
Top executives resigned or were arrested, including Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World editor who had become CEO of News International, and Andy Coulson, another former editor who had gone on to become communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron. Rupert and James Murdoch were called to testify before a Parliamentary committee, where Rupert famously declared it "the most humble day of my life."
Murdoch personally met with the Dowler family to apologize, appearing "shaken and upset" according to their solicitor. News International paid £2 million to the Dowler family and Murdoch personally pledged £1 million to charities of the family's choosing. The total cost of the scandal to News Corp exceeded £500 million in settlements, legal fees, and lost business.
While Rupert avoided personal legal liability, the scandal permanently damaged his reputation in Britain. The Leveson Inquiry into press ethics that followed led to widespread criticism of his papers' practices and his personal influence over British politics. Several executives were ultimately convicted and imprisoned, though Rebekah Brooks was acquitted of all charges in 2014.
Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit and the 2020 election
The second most costly legal disaster of Murdoch's career stemmed from Fox News's coverage of the 2020 presidential election and promotion of conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company.
After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump and his allies promoted false claims that the election was "stolen" through fraud, including allegations that Dominion's voting machines had switched votes from Trump to Biden. Fox News hosts and guests repeatedly amplified these claims on air, despite internal communications showing that Fox executives and hosts privately acknowledged the allegations were false.
Dominion sued Fox Corporation and Fox News for defamation in March 2021, seeking $1.6 billion in damages. The lawsuit revealed explosive internal communications, including texts and emails from Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham privately mocking the election fraud claims even as they promoted them on air. Rupert Murdoch's own deposition testimony acknowledged that "some of our commentators were endorsing" claims they "knew were false."
The case was set to go to trial in April 2023, with Murdoch and Fox News stars facing the prospect of testifying under oath about knowingly spreading false information. Just hours before jury selection was to begin, Fox settled for $787.5 million—one of the largest defamation settlements in U.S. history.
Murdoch and his son Lachlan had reportedly agreed just two days before trial to exceed Fox's previously stated settlement ceiling of $550 million to avoid the public spectacle of a trial. The settlement allowed Fox to avoid admitting wrongdoing in court, though the company acknowledged in a statement that "certain claims about Dominion" were false.
The Dominion settlement was followed by another massive defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company, seeking $2.7 billion. That case remained pending as of 2024, threatening additional massive payouts from Murdoch's empire.
Climate change denial and environmental criticism
Murdoch's media properties, particularly Fox News, The Wall Street Journal editorial page, and News Corp tabloids in Australia, have been accused of decades of climate change denial and blocking action on global warming. Studies have shown that News Corp publications in Australia were the most hostile to climate science of any major media outlets in the developed world.
Environmental activists have protested outside News Corp buildings in Australia, blaming Murdoch's media empire for Australia's weak climate policies and continued dependence on coal exports. His son James resigned from the News Corp board in 2020 citing disagreements over climate coverage among other issues, and James's wife Kathryn Murdoch has become a major funder of climate activism, creating family tension.
Critics argue that Murdoch's personal skepticism about climate science, combined with the business interests of his fossil fuel industry advertisers and allies, led to editorial policies that misled the public about one of humanity's greatest challenges. Defenders argue his outlets simply provided
skeptical perspectives that mainstream media ignored.
Sexual harassment scandals at Fox News
In 2016, Fox News was rocked by revelations that Roger Ailes, the network's founding CEO and Murdoch's longtime ally, had sexually harassed numerous female employees over decades. After anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit and more than 20 women came forward with similar allegations, Murdoch forced Ailes to resign in July 2016. Ailes received a $40 million severance package and died less than a year later.
The scandal didn't end with Ailes. In 2017, it emerged that Fox News's top-rated host Bill O'Reilly and the network had paid out approximately $13 million to settle harassment claims from five women. Despite initially defending O'Reilly, Murdoch forced him out in April 2017 after major advertisers began fleeing the network. O'Reilly's exit cost Fox News hundreds of millions in lost revenue from its most popular host.
Additional harassment scandals followed, including the July 2021 firing of Tucker Carlson amid a discrimination lawsuit. Critics argued that Murdoch had enabled a toxic culture at Fox News for decades, prioritizing ratings and profit over accountability for abuse.
Business philosophy and leadership
Murdoch's business strategy was characterized by several consistent themes:
- Vertical integration: He sought to own content creation (film studios, television production), distribution (broadcast networks, cable channels), and platforms (satellite television services), allowing him to control the entire value chain.
- Political influence as business strategy: Murdoch understood that political power could be monetized. His newspapers' endorsements were traded for regulatory favors, and his closeness to politicians of both parties opened doors for acquisitions and policy changes beneficial to his businesses.
- Tabloid instincts at scale: Whether in print or television, Murdoch had an uncanny sense for what mass audiences wanted: conflict, celebrity, simplified narratives, and content that triggered emotional responses. He applied these instincts even to supposedly serious journalism.
- Ideological consistency for audience building: While personally pragmatic, Murdoch recognized that building a loyal conservative audience through Fox News and his newspapers created a sustainable business model less dependent on fickle advertisers and more on viewer loyalty.
- Risk tolerance and leverage: Murdoch consistently borrowed heavily to finance acquisitions, betting that revenues would grow fast enough to service debt. This strategy nearly bankrupted him in 1990-91 when recession hit and banks demanded repayment, but he survived and learned to be slightly more cautious.
- Family succession obsession: Unlike many founders who professionalize their companies with outside management, Murdoch was determined to keep control within his family, leading to the complex trust structures and succession battles that marked his final years.
Legacy and impact
Rupert Murdoch's impact on global media and politics is difficult to overstate. He transformed tabloid journalism from a local phenomenon into a global business model, created the template for ideological cable news, and demonstrated that media empires could be used as instruments of political power while remaining profitable businesses.
His legacy is deeply contested. Supporters credit him with breaking stultified media monopolies, creating competition that benefited consumers, giving voice to conservative perspectives marginalized by liberal media elites, and building businesses that employed hundreds of thousands of people. His newspapers uncovered legitimate scandals and his television networks produced popular entertainment that audiences clearly wanted.
Critics view him as a malign force who coarsened public discourse, spread misinformation for profit, corrupted democratic politics through media manipulation, enabled sexual predators, and used his platforms to advance personal business interests and ideological vendettas. They argue his media empire made the world worse—more polarized, less informed, and more cynical.
The truth likely contains elements of both narratives. Murdoch was undeniably a brilliant entrepreneur and empire-builder, but one whose ruthlessness, lack of ethical boundaries, and willingness to profit from humanity's worst instincts left a troubling legacy. His children's fight over his succession—ultimately resolved only through a massive cash payout that expelled three of them from the business—suggested that even his own family couldn't agree on what his empire should represent.
At age 93 and into his fifth marriage, Murdoch remained physically active and mentally sharp, though no longer in day-to-day control of the companies he built. His transformation from a 22-year-old Australian inheriting two small newspapers to a nonagenarian who shaped the politics of three nations stands as one of the most remarkable business careers in history—and one of the most controversial.
Wealth and assets
Murdoch's net worth is estimated at $19.5-19.8 billion as of 2024, making him one of the 100 wealthiest people in the world. His wealth comes primarily from his stakes in Fox Corporation and News Corp, though the 2019 sale of entertainment assets to Disney converted a significant portion of his holdings to cash.
The family's assets include:
- Controlling stakes in Fox Corporation (Fox News, Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports)
- Controlling stakes in News Corp (Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Sun, The Times of London, HarperCollins Publishers, Dow Jones, REA Group, News Corp Australia)
- Moraga Estate vineyard in Bel Air, California, spanning 16 acres with a winery
- Multiple luxury properties in New York, London, Australia, and California
- Art collection estimated at over $100 million
The September 2025 settlement that gave Lachlan control while paying out James, Elisabeth, and Prudence approximately $1 billion each significantly restructured the family's wealth distribution, though the exact financial arrangements remained private.