To the surprise of friends who witnessed the joyful power couple in the throes of love, Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall have decided to end their six-year marriage and will divorce.
That was never more evident than in January 2017, roughly 10 months after the media mogul’s low-key wedding to his former supermodel bride in London.
Murdoch, 91, and Hall, 65, flew in a private jet to Melbourne after attending the belated Christmas party of Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister.
The happy pair was beaming as they entered Kirribilli House arm in arm to meet the political, media, and business elite.
Hall completed her ensemble with a $5,000 red Bvlgari handbag, sunglasses, and a statement pearl bangle. She wore a beautiful crimson wiggle dress and a matching cardigan draped across her shoulders.
In a sky blue suit, white shirt, and stylish sunglasses, Murdoch looked dapper.
Ryan Stokes, CEO of Seven West Media, and Alison Watkins, managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil were among the other prominent attendees at the event, which was postponed because of Mr. Turnbull’s jam-packed schedule.
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was photographed exiting a 7 series BMW vehicle, also attended the event.
Before the pandemic halted the airline’s fortunes, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce had a bounce in his step after receiving a $1 million salary raise and record annual profits for the company.
A few weeks later, Murdoch and Hall flew in aboard the Gulfstream 650 private aircraft of the head of News Corp to visit Melbourne.
While smoking a cigarette in the back of a limousine, Hall, 60, cut a trim figure in a stunning all-white costume. Murdoch, 85, looked smart in a traditional navy suit with a matching tie and white shirt.
Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan, a joint heir to the $62 billion media business, and his wife, Australian model and British-born Australian Sarah Murdoch, joined the power couple.
Men in suits and airport personnel placed wooden crates of Moraga wine and baggage into a car as the Murdoch family was escorted from the private flight.
Mr. Murdoch acquired Moraga Estate, a winery with bottles priced from $175 to $400, in California’s exclusive Bel Air neighborhood in 2013.
In contrast to Murdoch’s summer party earlier this week, where guests noticed Hall’s absence, they arrived at expensive Australian parties with excitement.
The fact that she wasn’t present did strike me as weird. One of those in attendance at the Serpentine Gallery in London on Monday night remarked, “She’s a social butterfly and would typically be at these kind of gatherings.
I also observed that neither her friends nor members of her family were present.
In August 2021, when they were photographed coming separately for a dinner, Murdoch and Hall were last spotted together in public in London. It is believed that they drove off in the same automobile.
According to two persons with knowledge of the matter, they recently called it quits, startling their pals, as reported by the New York Times.
With his first wife Patricia Booker, daughter Prudence MacLeod, now 64, daughter Elisabeth, now 53, sons Lachlan, now 50, and James, now 49, with second wife Anna Mann, and daughters Grace, now 21, and Chloe, now 19, whom he shares with his third wife Wendi Deng, make up Murdoch’s total family of six.
Hall previously had a long-term relationship with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, with whom she has four children: Elizabeth, 38; James, 36; Georgia May, 30; and Gabriel, 24. Despite their 22-year romance, the two never got legally married.
After a quick five-month courtship, the pair wed in a low-key ceremony at Spencer House, which has a view of Green Park, in London in March 2016.
The media mogul tweeted shortly after the wedding was completed to announce that he would be taking a sabbatical from social media to enjoy married life. At the moment, the media mogul expressed his happiness over the union.
He wrote, “No tweets for ten days or ever!” Feel like the world’s luckiest AND happiest man.
Before he married Hall, Murdoch had made three vow renewals.
In 1956, he wed Patricia, a former flight attendant; however, nine years after the birth of their only child, Prudence, the couple divorced.
He married Anna, a journalist from Glasgow to whom he had been married for 32 years before their divorce in 1999, in the same year.
According to CNBC, Anna received $1.7 billion as part of their divorce settlement, including $10 million in cash.
Just 17 days after divorcing his second wife Anna, Murdoch then wed Wendi. Murdoch was 68 years old when they got married, and Wendi was only 30.
A News Corp spokeswoman revealed in June 2013 that the couple’s 14-year marriage had been “irretrievably broken” for more than six months before it was publicized that they were separating.
After being met in Australia by one of Murdoch’s sisters and his niece, Murdoch and Hall started secretly dating in 2015.
On October 31, when they were first spotted together at the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham in London, the couple made their romance public.
Then, in January 2016, a few days before Murdoch made the couple’s engagement announcement, they went to the Golden Globes in Los Angeles.
With a 10-carat marquise diamond engagement ring estimated to be valued up to $3.5 million, Murdoch proposed to the woman.
Hall and Murdoch bought Beaverhead, a $200 million cattle ranch in Montana, from oil tycoon Fred Koch and his children in December 2021, just seven months before the news of their probable divorce was made public.
Although the couple’s divorce settlement and related documents have not yet been made public, it is likely that this split will be among the most expensive in the world, a distinction that Murdoch has previously acquired thanks to his $1.7 billion divorce from his second wife Anna.