Editor's Note:
The new documentary series The Murdochs: Empire of Influence explores the world's most powerful media family and its complicated history.
Featuring exclusive reports, insider interviews and archive footage, the series delves into the details of Rupert Murdoch's unlikely rise and the intense succession battle between his sons to decide who will inherit his empire.
You can watch the entire series now on CNN+.
(CNN) --
Over the past 70 years, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has built a small family-owned Australian newspaper company into the most powerful conservative media empire in history.
With a market capitalization of $13.5 billion, News Corp is one of the most influential companies on the planet.
The story of the ruthless business tactics, political maneuvering, and dynastic family battles within this media powerhouse would be perfect material for one of News Corp's media outlets or television channels, if it weren't the story of Rupert himself. .
Now, as this seemingly invincible figure passes his 90s, speculation in the worlds of business, politics and entertainment about his successor at the helm of News Corp is spiraling out of control.
Here's a look at who's who in the possible line of succession and the Murdoch clan in general.
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Patriarch
Rupert Murdock
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, at the Sun Valley Resort in 2018.
Australian Rupert Murdoch, 91, is the media mogul who turned the small news business he inherited from his father in 1952 into News Corporation, Ltd., the multibillion-dollar global media empire with a publishing presence, into broadcast television. cable, film, television, Internet, sports, and other fields.
At different times, the conglomerate has included the News of the World, The Sun, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal;
the Twentieth Century Fox film studio;
the Fox Broadcasting network;
FoxNewsChannel;
HarperCollins Publishing and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Murdoch has been married four times and has had six children throughout his seven-decade career.
Several of Murdoch's children have followed in his footsteps in the family business.
Murdoch's penchant for pitting his children against each other for years to see who will succeed him as head of News Corp is believed to be the inspiration for the popular HBO series "Succession."
Murdoch's cruelty extends beyond his family circle.
Early in his career he developed the tactic of taking on the competition by buying it or driving it out of business.
The business of its British tabloid newspapers came under scrutiny in 2011, when reporters were found to have hacked into the phones of royalty, celebrities and crime victims to get their stories.
The Murdoch family brand made headlines again when Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes was forced to resign amid sexual harassment allegations in 2016.
Roger Ailes leaves Fox News after sexual harassment allegations
Murdoch remains at the top of News Corp, the second incarnation of the now-defunct News Corporation, which was spun into two companies in 2013. It's unclear who will run the company when he dies.
potential heirs
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Murdoch in 2018.
Lachlan Murdoch, 50, is Rupert Murdoch's eldest son with his second wife, Anna.
He began learning the family business at a young age through his father's media internship.
He quickly rose through the executive ranks, becoming chairman and CEO of News Ltd in 1997. At the time, his father described Lachlan as his heir, "first among equals."
His rise continued smoothly until 2005. That year, Lachlan abruptly resigned from his executive positions at News Corporation after a battle with Ailes over the cable news network's management sidelined him from the path of heir apparent.
Lachlan then launched his own investment company, Illyria Pty, in Australia.
After a lengthy absence, Lachlan returned to the family business in 2014 and resumed his position as potential heir to the empire, becoming CEO of Fox Broadcasting and CEO of 21st Century Fox. Shortly after, Lachlan's younger brother James was elected. CEO of 21st Century Fox in a Rupert-orchestrated power-sharing experiment between the brothers.
The experiment was unsuccessful, and Rupert sold 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2019. Lachlan now serves as Executive Chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation and Co-Chairman of News Corp, as well as CEO of NOVA Entertainment, an Australian media company.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch in facts
James Murdock
James Murdock in 2019.
James Murdoch, 49, is Rupert Murdoch's fourth child and the second with his second wife, Anna.
James's career choice in the early years ran counter to his father's conservative journalistic empire.
He dropped out of Harvard in 1995 to found his own hip-hop record label, Rawkus Records.
After several years, he moved into executive roles at News Corporation and became a businessman.
After Lachlan left Fox in 2005, James was increasingly seen as his father's new heir.
In 2007, James became Chairman of BSkyB.
In 2011, he was named deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation, and president and CEO of News International.
But as James ascended to new heights within the empire, the company was embroiled in a scandal when investigators and journalists discovered that staff at some of Murdoch's UK tabloids had hacked into the phones of public figures and crime victims to obtain his stories.
As a consequence, James was forced to resign as Chairman of BSkyB.
After several years off, he rejoined the family business, eventually becoming chairman of Sky and CEO of 21st Century Fox, co-running the company with his older brother Lachlan, in the role of CEO.
The co-leadership deal didn't work out, and James left 21st Century Fox in 2019 when the company was sold to Disney, then left Sky when majority control was acquired by Comcast.
Long known as the reclusive liberal of the Murdoch clan, James's political differences with his family came to a head and he resigned from News Corp's board of directors in 2020, writing at the time: "My resignation is due to disagreements about certain editorial content published by the company's media outlets and some other strategic decisions".
Elizabeth Murdoch
Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, poses for photos on the red carpet upon arrival to attend the 2016 British Fashion Awards in London on December 5, 2016.
Elisabeth Murdoch, 53, is Rupert Murdoch's second daughter, the first he had with his second wife Anna Murdoch.
Elisabeth soon began her training in the family business with internships and entry-level jobs at Murdoch properties.
In 1996 she became CEO of Sky Networks at BSkyB.
However, several years later she was passed over for the Sky CEO job.
Rupert considers Elisabeth to be the most like him, but has been most disparaging of her attempts to take the throne, saying at one point that she would have to find out how many children she wanted before planning any further advancement in the company.
In 2000 he left the family business and went on to found Shine, one of the UK's largest independent production companies with shows such as "The Biggest Loser", "Master Chef" and "History Cold Case".
When News Corporation acquired Shine in 2011, Elisabeth attempted to take a seat on News Corporation's board of directors, but scrutiny over the phone hacking scandal prevented her from doing so.
She left Shine after a merger with two other production companies.
In 2019 she created a new production company, Sister, and in 2021 Sister financed the opening of a London branch of Ghetto Film School, a non-profit program geared towards introducing young people of color to the entertainment industry.
Wives
Patricia Booker
Rupert Murdoch and his first wife, Patricia Booker, a former department store model and flight attendant, married in 1956. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Prudence, two years later.
The marriage lasted 11 years;
they divorced in 1967.
Anna Murdock
Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch with his second wife Anna Maria Torv and their 14-month-old daughter Elisabeth at their home in Sussex Gardens, London, on October 4, 1969.
Rupert met Anna Torv at her newspaper The Daily Mirror in Sydney, where she was working as a reporter.
A few months after divorcing Patricia, Rupert and Anna got married.
They had three children together, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James, now the main contenders to be heirs to the Murdoch empire.
Over the years, Anna published several novels, one of them featuring a family that was very much like her own.
She spent three decades raising her family and acting as Rupert's faithful companion on the world stage.
In the mid-1990s, as Rupert neared conventional retirement age, Anna hoped that her relentless drive to build the empire would wane and that he would spend more time with her enjoying her golden years.
Rupert was completely opposed to that idea.
Wendi Deng
Wendi Deng, 53, the third wife of Rupert Murdoch, is the mother of his two youngest daughters, Grace Murdoch, 20, and Chloe Murdoch, 18. Wendi met Rupert while working at his Star TV network in Hong Kong.
The up-and-coming actress immediately charmed the media mogul.
A former colleague said, "We always knew she was someone who would do well with her. We just didn't realize how well."
They were married in June 1999, two years after they met and just 17 days after Rupert's divorce from his second wife, Anna, was finalized.
Wendi became one of Rupert's closest advisers and confidants, but her elder children opposed the marriage and saw Wendi as a potential competitor for control of the Murdoch empire.
But after 14 years,
Jerry Hall
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall leaving St Brides Church after their wedding on March 5, 2016 in London, England.
Former supermodel and ex-girlfriend of rock star Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall married Rupert Murdoch in 2016, when she was 59 and he was 85. Murdoch's eldest sons genuinely like Jerry and approved of the union, circumstances very different than his marriage to Wendi Deng.
The London wedding was a joyous family affair and featured a rare moment of solidarity among the Murdoch clan.
other children
Prudence Macleod
Prudence MacLeod seen at Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch's Wedding Breakfast at Spencer House St. James on March 5, 2016 in London, England.
Prudence Macleod is Rupert's eldest daughter from his first marriage to Patricia Booker.
Prudence never showed much interest in running the family business, so she has largely stayed out of the succession battle her brothers Elisabeth, Lachlan and James have been caught up in.
Throughout her career she has held various positions at News Corporation and currently sits on the board of directors of Times Newspapers, Ltd. She also has a voting interest in the Murdoch family trust.
Grace and Chloe Murdock
Rupert Murdoch, Grace Murdoch, Chloe Murdoch and Wendi Murdoch attend the 33rd Annual Citymeals On Wheels Power Lunch For Women at The Plaza Hotel on November 19, 2019 in New York.
Grace, 20, and Chloe, 18, are Murdoch's two youngest daughters from his marriage to Wendi Deng.
They spent their childhood traveling between the family's estates in New York, Los Angeles, and Arizona and luxury vacation destinations around the world.
Both attended the prestigious Brearley School in Manhattan.
Grace is now studying at Yale University, while Chloe is studying at Stanford.
The younger Murdochs hold non-voting shares in the Murdoch family trust, allowing them, along with their older step-siblings, to inherit billions.
Rupert Murdock