The Murdoch Family: All About the Real-Life People Who Inspired 'Succession'

Mar. 15, 2025

An elderly media tycoon with several grown children in consideration to be his successor: What sounds like the plot ofSuccessionis actually the reality forRupert Murdochand his six children.

But unlike in the critically acclaimed series,Rupert’s eldest son, Lachlan, will take over the 93-year-old’s business empire, Fox Corp and News Corp.

Rupert has been married four times and has six children with three of his wives: Prudence (with his first wife Patricia Booker); Elisabeth, Lachlan and James (with his second wife Anna Torv); and Chloe and Grace (with his third wife, Wendi Deng). Afterdivorcing his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, in August 2022, the media tycoonannounced his engagementto Ann Lesley Smith on March 20, 2023 (the pair called off their engagement just a few weeks later).

Over the years, there was public speculation about each of his four older children and their potential to be the next leader of the conservative media empire. But Rupert himself was notorious for avoiding the topic: “Let the chips fall where they will,” he once said,according toThe Irish Times.

In April 2023,Vanity Fairpublished an article indicating that Rupert believed a “Darwinian struggle” would produce the most capable successor. “He pitted his kids against each other their entire lives. It’s sad,” a person close to the family told the outlet.

Since stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp. in November 2023, Rupert has requested that the Murdoch Family Trust, which dates back to 1999, be amended to give Lachlan total control and voting power without his siblings' interference upon his death.

As a result, a fiercecourt battlebetween Rupert and three of his children — Prudence, Elisabeth and James — began on Sept. 16, 2024. The trio are fighting for equal voting rights on the board of News Corp and Fox News as laid out in the current trust.

From multiple marriages to media moves and many grandchildren, here is a closer look at the powerful Murdoch family and their complicated dynamic.

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch.Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931, in Australia. His business empire began when he was just 22 years old and his father, Sir Keith Murdoch, unexpectedly died. Upon his death, Rupert inherited a small Australian newspaper,The News, in 1952. “My motives were to create a great paper,” Rupertrecalled toThe Australianin 2014. “It was my father’s dream. He talked to me about this as a teenager.”

From there, Rupert spent much of the 1950s and 60s expanding his newspaper business, acquiring papers throughout Australia and New Zealand. By the mid-1970s, he had purchased major newspapers in both the United Kingdom and the United States, includingNews of the World,The Sun, theSan Antonio Express-NewsandTheNew York Post. “Why am I in papers? I just love it,” he told The Village Voice shortly after purchasing thePost.

But Rupert didn’t limit himself to just newspapers. Over the following decades, he grew News Corporation to include television, film and publishing companies — including book publisher HarperCollins, film studio Twentieth Century Fox and theWall Street Journal. By 2009, it was one of the largest media companies in the world,Fortunereported.

“I remember every minute of it,” Rupert said of building his empire toThe Australian.

Murdorchmarried for the fourth timein March 2016 to supermodel Jerry Hall. “Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in the world,” he tweeted after their civil ceremony in London. They were married for six years anddivorced in August 2022. “They remain good friends and wish each other the best for the future,” Rupert’s attorney, Robert S. Cohen, and Hall’s attorney, Judith L. Poller, said in a statement. According toVanity Fair, the divorce settlement specifically stated that Hall couldn’t provide story ideas to the writers onSuccession.

Hewas later engaged to former police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith. Rupert proposed to Ann on St. Patrick’s Day in 2023 and announced the news to his own paper,TheNew York Post, a few days later. “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last,” he said. “It better be. I’m happy.”

In April 2023, a source close to Rupert told PEOPLE that Rupert and Smithcalled off their engagement.Vanity Fairfirst broke the news of their split, reporting that Rupert had become uncomfortable with Smith’s evangelical beliefs.

“She said Tucker Carlson is a messenger from God, and [Rupert] said nope,” a source told the outlet.

Prudence MacLeod

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Prue briefly worked for one of her father’s papers,News of the World, but hasn’t always gotten along with him. After a 1997 press conference, where Rupert referred to his “three children” (omitting Prue), the two had “the biggest row I’ve ever had,” she shared inone of her only public interviews. “I rang up, I screamed at him, I hung up. He was very upset,” she continued. “He then sent the biggest bunch of flowers — it was bigger than a sofa — and two clementine trees.”

The eldest Murdoch child has been married twice: First, in 1986, to Crispin Odey, a London hedge fund manager. They divorced a year later in 1987. She then married Alasdair MacLeod in 1989, who went on to work for Rupert despite Prudence’s disapproval, per Wolff. Prudence and Alasdair live in Sydney and have three children: James, Angus and Clementine.

Elisabeth Murdoch

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Rupert’s first child with his second wife, Anna, is daughter Elisabeth. Born on Aug. 22, 1968, in Sydney, Australia, she was apparently named after her grandmother — Rupert’s mother — Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. Elisabeth spent her childhood growing up in New York, minus a brief stint at boarding school in Australia, per Wolff’s book.

After attending Vassar College, Elisabeth held a series of jobs within her father’s company, including managing director at BSkyB, the British broadcasting company. But she also had ventures of her own: First owning a pair of NBC-affiliate stations in California and later, in 2001, launching an independent television company called Shine, which produced popular reality shows likeThe Biggest LoserandMasterChef. “I wanted my own business. I felt I could achieve a great deal even if it was bloody scary at the time,” she toldThe Guardianin 2010.

“You’d love your parents to be proud of you,” she toldThe New Yorkerin 2012. “Each time I tried to work in his company, he wasn’t impressed. I realized I had to just go and be myself.”

In April 2023, a source toldVanity Fairthat Elisabeth is “terrified of Rupert dying mad at her.” So, despite her liberal politics, she’s unlikely to help James overthrow Lachlan and regain control of Fox News until her father is gone.

In her personal life, Elisabeth has been married three times and has four children. Her first marriage was to fellow Vassar graduate Elkin Pianim in 1993, per theNew York Times; the couple had two daughters, Cornelia and Anna. After their divorce in 1998, she wed British PR executive Matthew Freud in 2001. They also had two children together — Charlotte and Samson — and divorced in 2014. In 2017, Elisabethmarried for a third timeto artist Keith Tyson.

Lachlan Murdoch

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Rupert welcomed his first son with Anna, Lachlan, on Sept. 8, 1971, in London. He grew up in New York and attended a variety of private schools before heading to Princeton University, where he studied philosophy. Right away, he began to work for his father, managing newspapers in Australia and the U.S. beforebeing named the deputy chief operating officer(the No. 3 position) at News Corp. in 1997.

But similar to his big sister Elisabeth, Lachlan also wanted to prove himself outside of the family business. In 2005, he left News Corp. and moved to Australia to launch his own firm, Illyria, which invested in failing radio stations and revived them.

“In life, you back yourself,” Lachlan toldBusiness Insiderabout his decision to step out on his own. “Can you separate from the company and the broader family and a lot of your colleagues and go out on your own and build your own business and take a lot of risk?”

He continued, “It gives you a lot of confidence … that you succeeded outside the company you grew up in.”

In 2014, Lachlan returned to the family business as the non-executive co-chairman of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox,according to Bloomberg.

According to aVanity Fairsource, Lachlan’s transition back into the company fold was a “big slap in the face” to James who had spent the past decade trying to prove to his father that he was the rightful heir to the media mogul’s throne.

When Lachlan was announced as his father’s successor in September 2023, he thanked Rupert in a media statement, saying, “We thank him for his vision and his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination and the enduring legacy he leaves at the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted.”

Lachlan has beenmarried to Australian model Sarah O’Hare since 1998. They have since welcomed three children: sonsKalanandAidanand daughter Aerin.

James Murdoch

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In April 2023, a senior Fox staffer toldVanity Fairthat James' “mission in life” is to destroy Fox News — a task he will likely only accomplish with the help of his sisters and once Rupert has died.

James and his wife Kathryn, who married in 2000, run the foundation Quadrivium, which has supported causes including voter participation, democracy reform and climate change initiatives,according to theNew York Times. James is also well-known for being much more liberal than his conservative family. “We’ve been arguing about politics since I was a teenager,” he told theNew York Timesabout his father.

James and Kathryn are the parents of three children: daughters Anneka and Emerson, and son Walter. But James has no interest in setting up a family business of his own, according to theNew York Times. “There’s no empire,” he said. “There’s no future dynasty.”

Grace Murdoch

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Born on Nov. 19, 2001, Grace Helen Murdoch is Rupert’s first child with Wendi Deng (and his fifth overall). She grew up in New York and attended the Brearley School, where she graduated from in June 2020,according to her Instagram. She is currently a student at Yale University.

Grace appears to have a close relationship with her billionaire father. “My favorite person,” shecaptioned a series of photosof them together on Instagram.

“I am so lucky to be your daughter,” Gracewrote on her social mediaon his 90th birthday.

Chloe Murdoch

Andrew H Walker/WWD/Penske Media/Getty

Rupert’s youngest child (and second with Wendi) is daughter Chloe, who was born on July 17, 2003. Chloe grew up in New York with her older sister and currently attends Stanford University, herInstagram bio states.

Despite having two public figures for parents, Chloe leads a relatively private life. She has no public-facing social media accounts, only occasionally appearing on her mother’s Instagram. “You always were the cutest child, but now you are the most wonderful 18 year daughter,” Wendiwrote on her 18th birthdayin 2020.

A year prior, she described Chloe as “beautiful, incredible, unique” in aseparate Instagram post.

source: people.com