A court battle to determine the future of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and a £14.9 billion family trust has begun in the US, pitting the 93-year-old billionaire against three of his eldest children over who will gain the most voting shares and power to control News Corp and Fox News when he dies.
It has been reported that Murdoch wanted to amend a family trust created in 1999 so that son Lachlan could take control without “interference” from his siblings Prudence, Elisabeth and James.
The famous family was one of the inspirations behind the hugely popular TV series Succession – something the Murdochs have always refused to comment on.
Murdoch, who has been married five times, also has two younger children, Grace and Chloe, who do not have any voting rights under the trust agreement, BBC News reported.
“From what we know, this plan essentially seeks to put Prudence, James and Elisabeth on the same footing as Murdoch’s two younger daughters,” said Walter Marsh, an Australian journalist and author of the biography Young Rupert: The making of the Murdoch Empire.
He added that “all voting power” could be handed over to Lachlan.
Murdoch fathered Prudence (66), Elisabeth (56), Lachlan (53), James (51), Grace (22) and Chloe (21) and from the 1960s, built his media empire into a globe-spanning media giant with major political and public influence.
His two companies are News Corporation, which owns newspapers including the Times and the Sun in the UK and the Wall Street Journal in the US, and Fox, which broadcasts Fox News.
Murdoch had been preparing his two sons to follow in his footsteps, beginning when they were teens, journalist Andrew Neil told the 2020 BBC documentary The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty.
“Family has always been very important to Rupert Murdoch, particularly from the point of view of forming a dynasty,” the former Sunday Times editor said.
Alice Enders, head of research at Enders Analysis, told the BBC the court battle was “actually about commercial interests”.
“The solution would of course have been either for the siblings to have agreed to the change or more likely than not have been bought out in some way, but the price of buying them out is astronomical and Lachlan would have had to assume it just the same as Rupert bought out his siblings many years ago,” she added.
In 1999, the Murdoch Family Trust, which owns the media companies, was supposed to largely settle the succession plans. It led to Murdoch giving his eldest children various jobs within his companies.
The trust gives the family eight votes, which it can use to have a say on the board of News Corp and Fox News. Mr Murdoch currently controls four of those votes, with his eldest children being in charge of one each.
The trust agreement said that once Mr Murdoch died, his votes would be passed on to his four eldest children equally. However, differences in opinions and political views were said to lead to a family rift.
The media mogul stepped down as Fox and News Corp chairman in favour of Lachlan, who reportedly shares the same right-wing views as his father. This has reportedly led to James, Elisabeth and Prudence uniting and “fighting back”.
The private court case is being held at Washoe County Courthouse in Reno, Nevada.
Media outlets have been barred from the proceedings, which are expected to unfold with testimony from the media titan and the four children named in the trust over the next week, according to the New York Times, which first brought the dispute to light after obtaining copies of sealed court documents.
These types of family battles often end in settlements. The case could also be prolonged, if it ends in a decision that one side chooses to appeal against, BBC said.
Prudence is Mr Murdoch’s eldest child, from his marriage to his first wife Patricia Booker. He had Elisabeth, Lachlan and James with second wife Anna Mann, whom he was married to from 1967 to 1999.
Grace and Chloe’s mother is Wendi Deng, who was married to the billionaire from 1999 to 2013.
Murdoch’s fourth marriage was to model Jerry Hall in 2016, with the couple divorcing in 2022. He recently married his fifth wife Elena Zhukova in June this year.
Emmanuel Addeh
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