Extract from ABC News
Analysis
Rupert Murdoch, with his fifth wife Elena Zhukova, arrives at court in Reno this week. (Reuters)
Succession plays out in US court over Murdoch media empire.
A family unravelling
The Murdoch Family Trust was born out of the death of a marriage.
When Rupert divorced his second wife Anna Torv back in 1999, she opted to take a relatively small settlement of $US200 million, half in cash, the remainder in property. Under California law, she could have taken the media mogul for half his wealth.
Instead, she demanded that control of the business be equally split between Rupert and their offspring.
The trade-off, for her part, was the security of her kids and that of Prudence, his daughter with first wife Patricia Booker. Each of the four children would have one vote in the trust. Rupert would have four.
Almost all the Murdoch wealth is tied up in the trust and consists of shares that control about 40 per cent of both News Corp and Fox Corp. Until recently, they've voted as a block in matters of business.
But two years ago, when Rupert and Lachlan hatched a plan to merge Fox Corp with News Corp, James decided to vote against the deal.
The Murdochs already were facing down hostile shareholders who disapproved of the merger.
Some objected that it would forever cement Lachlan as the supreme ruler, but most railed against the idea of marrying prestige mastheads like the Wall Street Journal with the sensationalist and increasingly rabid Fox News.
Dissent within the Murdoch ranks would make the deal an impossibility and the idea was ditched.
Alarmed, the elder Murdoch took the first steps to ensure the episode could never be repeated by permanently elevating Lachlan.
Rupert Murdoch — pictured at the Republican National Convention in July — (Reuters: Brian Snyder)
According to one insider, Rupert is convinced that, once he has departed, his offspring may sell either the newspapers or Fox. He also believes that, having made them all rich beyond their dreams, he has the right to dictate the future of the empire he created.
James stepped down from the board in 2020, after Disney snapped up the 21st Century Fox movie business, a deal that left him largely unemployed. It also left him and his siblings mind-bogglingly rich, each picking up around $US2 billion.
Once out of the fold, James became increasingly vocal about his disdain for Fox News, its political coverage and its climate change denial stance.
In an interview with the New Yorker, he openly criticised Fox, which had aligned itself with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.
"The connective tissue of our society is being manipulated to make us fight with each other, making us the worst versions of ourselves," he said.
When asked to clarify whether he was talking about Fox News, he hesitated before saying: "There are views I really disagree with on Fox."
Rupert's ex-wife Anna, pictured in 1998, may be pivotal in this case. (AP: Kevork Djansezian)
Power and trust
Anna Torv has remained silent on this latest family skirmish. But she holds tremendous power.
For this isn't the first time Rupert has attempted to change the trust. After siring two more children, Grace and Chloe, with third wife Wendi Deng, Murdoch implored his other kids to have them included in the family trust.
According to biographer Michael Wolff, he had to pay them off to get their agreement — $US150 million each — and the trust was duly divided into six.
But when it came to voting rights, Anna Torv Murdoch Mann refused to budge, insisting the pair be forever locked out of the halls of power, a move that incensed their mother, third wife Wendi Deng.
While no-one has openly canvassed the idea, it's entirely possible she could once again emerge to play a critical role in these proceedings.
Given the pair were divorced in California and the trust was an integral part of the settlement, insiders believe there may be grounds for her to renegotiate the divorce settlement if she believed there was an inequitable distribution within the trust.
Rupert Murdoch, with his sons Lachlan and James, at his wedding to former supermodel Jerry Hall in 2016. (Reuters: Peter Nicholls)
Rupert, in the meantime, is arguing that altering the trust to elevate Lachlan is the best way to maintain the value of the trust for the benefit of all his children. Given James and his sisters are all adults, and they are opposing the proposition, that could be a difficult argument to win.
While the court proceedings are being held in secret and all the documentation is sealed, security hasn't been entirely watertight.
The case was filed in October last year but the three offspring — James, Elizabeth and Prudence — weren't informed until last December.
It wasn't until a few months ago that word finally leaked out with a surprisingly accurate story based upon the filings in the New York Times, the much-detested News Corp rival.
Then last week, inside details of the dispute were unearthed in the Wall Street Journal, including a revelation that James tried to settle by suggesting he and his sisters might be willing to sell their interests.
Given the trust is worth about $US6 billion, such a deal would strain Lachlan and Rupert's finances and their grip on the companies.
Lachlan's ascension
Lachlan wasn't always the anointed one.
For years, it was James being groomed for greatness, firstly running the Far East corner of the empire as chief of Star TV, a flailing pay television business that never managed to crack the Chinese market, before heading to the UK in 2003 where he rapidly ascended to the top.
Lachlan, meanwhile, was in the US working alongside his father. But the relationship soured in 2005 when Rupert took the advice of senior aides over that of his inexperienced son, creating a schism between the pair.
Lachlan headed back to Sydney where he went his own way, snapping up Nova radio and building a new-age media empire of his own. But, with one eye on the future, he maintained his boardroom presence at News.
It was a time when James, after initially being spurned by UK investors amid claims of nepotism, proved his mettle as a businessman by fixing problem issues and lifting profits. In Lachlan's absence, his rise seemed assured.
But his career came to a shuddering halt in 2011 after presiding over the UK phone tapping scandal and his inept handling of the fallout.
Reporters had been bribing police and publishing stories from illegally tapped phones, including that of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The revelations brought the company to its knees. The Murdochs were forced to front Parliament, shut scandal rag the News of the World, abandon their takeover of BSkyB, split the company in two — with Fox and News operating separately — and buy back huge amounts of stock.
James later headed to North America but the damage was done. And Lachlan's return to the fold put paid to any ambitions his younger brother may have held.
The next 93 years
While all this drama has played out behind the scenes, Murdoch senior has kept the world enthralled with the romantic twists and turns of his love life.
Two years ago, wife number four, Jerry Hall, was dispatched, reportedly via email. Details of the settlement, if there was one, seem to be scant.
A few months ago, he settled on wife number five, Elena Zhukova, a scientist with family connections to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Forever in hot demand, there was an intervening interlude with his engagement to Ann-Lesley Smith last year.
Rupert confided to a reporter at his very own New York outlet, the Post, that he "dreaded falling in love", which wouldn't come as a surprise given how much the divorces must cost.
The whirlwind engagement with Smith may have lasted barely a fortnight. But it was long enough for the wily tycoon to let rip with another insight into his expectations of longevity.
"We're looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together," the then 92-year-old said wistfully.
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