On Thursday, the multi-billionaire announced his plans to marry his 67-year-old girlfriend Elena Zhukova. The couple wants to get married in June at Murdoch’s Moraga winery in California. According to the New York Times, Zhukova immigrated to the United States from Russia and is a retired molecular biologist.
Australian-born Murdoch, a US citizen since 1985, is one of the most powerful media entrepreneurs in the world. It owns, among others, the conservative news channel Fox News and the newspaper “Wall Street Journal” in the USA and in Great Britain the tabloid “Sun” and the newspaper “The Times”. The US magazine Forbes estimates the value of Murdoch’s media empire News Corp at more than $20 billion (18.3 billion euros).
Murdoch has repeatedly found himself in the headlines with his checkered personal life. Last year, the 92-year-old announced his engagement to the then 66-year-old Ann Lesley Smith, but canceled the planned wedding at short notice.
Murdoch’s first wife was Australian stewardess Patricia Booker in 1956. The marriage broke up in 1967. Murdoch was then married to newspaper reporter Anna Torv for more than 30 years. The two divorced in 1999. Murdoch’s third marriage to Wendi Deng ended in 2013. In March 2016, he finally married ex-model Jerry Hall, the former partner of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. The marriage ended in 2022. Murdoch has a total of six children.
