Rupert Murdoch, Jerry Hall, to divorce

NEW YORK: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress Jerry Hall are getting a divorce, the New York Times reported this week, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Murdoch got married to Hall, 65, in a low-key ceremony in central London in March 2016. The Fox Corp chairperson and his former supermodel wife were frequent fodder for the tabloids, which chronicled their marriage at Spencer

House and the festivities surrounding the elder Murdoch’s 90th birthday celebration last year in New York.

Murdoch’s divorce, his fourth, is unlikely to alter the ownership structure of businesses he holds stakes in, which include Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News Channel, and News Corp, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch, 91, controls News Corp and Fox Corp through a family trust that holds a 40% stake in voting shares of each company. His net worth Forbes estimates at $17.7billion (about R282bn). He sold Fox film and TV studios and other entertainment assets to Walt Disney Co in a $71.3bn deal in 2019.