Who's who? Here's the Murdoch family tree to bring you up to date
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is stepping away from the empire he built, saying he will turn over the reins to his son, Lachlan.
With Rupert having been married four times and having six children, here is a look at who's who in the Murdoch family tree.
Rupert was 26 when he became a father for the first time. With his wife Patricia Booker, they welcomed Prudence into the world.
Unlike some of her half-siblings, Prudence has not showed the same interest in rising to the top of the family business, despite having the same stake in the family trust as Lachlan, James and Elisabeth, as well as an equal say in what happens to the trust's voting stock in both companies upon her father's death.
Elisabeth is the eldest child from Rupert's second marriage.
In the late 1990s, Elisabeth served as managing director of Sky Networks for British Sky Broadcasting but left the company a decade later after being overlooked for the position of chief executive, according to news reports at the time.
A year later, she launched her own independent production company, Shine, which was acquired by News Corp in 2011. This initially brought her into a more prominent position in the family business, but her role was diminished when Shine later merged with Endemol in a joint venture, and she stepped away from day-to-day operations.
In 2019, Elisabeth co-founded global content company Sister, and has remained active as an entrepreneur and philanthropist across the entertainment and creative industries.
Murdoch kids: Lachlan (1971)Lachlan is one of Rupert's sons with his second wife, Anna. With his father stepping down, Lachlan is set to become News Corp chairman and continue as chief executive officer of Fox Corp, home to conservative news network Fox News, the Fox broadcast and sports networks, and local TV stations.
Lachlan has been CEO for Fox Corp since 2019, following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
Before the merger, he served as executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, starting in 2015 — while his brother, James, was CEO of Fox's then-entertainment business in what analysts described as a competitive power-share concocted by their father.
Murdoch kids: James (1972)James is Lachlan's younger brother, and also one of the children from their father's second marriage.
In addition to his time as CEO at 21st Century Fox, James held various executive positions at News Corp over the years, but later resigned from the family-controlled publisher's board over content appearing in its newspapers, which include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
In his 2020 resignation, James — known as the more liberal brother — said he stepped down "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions".
James had previously criticised News Corp's editorial decisions and said he disagreed with Fox News coverage.
Earlier James was embroiled in the 2011 News of the World phone-hacking scandal along with his father, but both denied responsibility.
Murdoch kids: Grace (2001)Grace was born in New York and grew up in Manhattan. According to her LinkedIn profile she is a junior at Yale University and has done internships at The Wall Street Journal, Goop and Charlotte Tilbury.
Chloe is Wendi Deng and Rupert's youngest daughter. Like her sister Grace, she grew up in New York where she and her sister attended the prestigious Brearley School in Manhattan. She is now attending Stanford University.
In 1956 Rupert married his first wife Patricia Booker. She was a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne. They had their only child Prudence in 1958 and divorced in 1967. Patricia reportedly died in 2000, in her 70s.
Anna Torv was a Scottish newspaper journalist who married Rupert in 1967. They were believed to have met when Anna was interviewing him while she worked for his newspaper the Daily Mirror in Sydney. Together they had three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.
Torv was a main board director of News Corp from 1990 until the pair separated in 1998.
Murdoch wives: Wendi Deng (1999-2013)In 1999, after 32 years of marriage, Rupert left Anna and proposed to one of his employees, Wendi Deng, who was 30 at the time. She was a Yale graduate and was the newly appointed vice-president of Rupert's STAR TV. Together they had two daughters, Chloe and Grace.
In March 2016, then 84-year-old Rupert married his fourth wife, former model Jerry Hall. In July 2022 she filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalised in August 2022.
