Australian-born tycoon Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to retired scientist Elena Zhukova.
The businessman, who at 92 years old decided to retire as president of News Corp and Fox last September to hand over the reins to his son, does not seem to find age a barrier to starting a new marriage.
This was announced by
The New York Times
on Thursday, March 7, when Murdoch's office reported that he plans to marry his girlfriend next summer, Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired molecular biologist with whom he began dating on last summer.
If the “I do” is said in June, as planned in the invitations that have already begun to circulate, this would be Murdoch's fifth wedding, but it is his sixth engagement.
The last ones, moreover, have been very followed.
After divorcing Jerry Hall, model and ex-wife of singer Mick Jagger in the summer of 2022 – through a brief
that said: “Jerry, unfortunately I have decided to end our marriage” – he became engaged to Ann Lesley. Smith, a retired dental hygienist, in the spring of 2023. “We are both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” the mogul said in March of that year, when making the news public.
However, the businessman abruptly broke that commitment two weeks after his announcement.
Murdoch did not like Smith's evangelical ideas, according to anonymous sources close to him cited at the time by
Vanity Fair
.
More information
You have an 11-word 'e-mail' asking for a divorce: this was the breakup between Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall
He met Zhukova through his third wife, Wendi Deng, according to the
Daily Mail
in August, when he broke the news of the relationship after obtaining images of the couple sailing in the Mediterranean.
Zhukova is a twice-divorced molecular biologist and diabetes specialist.
She has lived in the United States for more than three decades after leaving Russia in 1991 with her daughter.
Before retiring she worked in the medical research unit at the University of California,” the British tabloid then described her.
The New York Times
also adds that, having come to the United States from Moscow toward the end of the Soviet Union, Zhukova's ex-husband, Alexander Zhukov, became a billionaire energy investor (he now resides in London as a British citizen).
Rupert Murdoch, 92, is engaged once more.
This time it is to Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired molecular biologist who has started dating in the summer.
https://t.co/vvqOhH6fhq
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 7, 2024
The wedding is scheduled to take place at Moraga Estate, Murdoch's vineyard and estate in California, as reported this Thursday by both
The Times
and
ABC News
.
The property was originally the home of Victor Fleming, the American director behind
Gone with the Wind
and
The Wizard of Oz
.
The grounds include a Mediterranean Renaissance-style mansion and guesthouse with nine fireplaces, a Provençal-style garden, and nearly 65,000 square meters of vineyards.
Murdoch bought the property in 2013, after seeing an advertisement in
The Wall Street Journal.
Zhukova has a daughter, Dasha Zhukova, who works as a philanthropist and businesswoman.
Murdoch's lineage is a little more extensive, as he has six children from three of his four previous wives.
The first-born, Lachlan Murdoch, has followed in his father's footsteps and for six months has been the new president of his companies - although Rupert continues to have an active role in the company.
In fact, the Murdoch family is the real saga that inspired the hit HBO series
Succession
.
Rupert Murdoch is considered the 76th richest person in the world and is ranked 35th of the 400 richest people in the United States in the lists prepared by
Forbes
magazine , with a fortune of 17.2 billion dollars (about 15.7 billion euros). .