Rupert Murdoch to divorce Wendi Deng
Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from his wife Wendi. She famously intervened when the media mogul was attacked with a foam pie.
It would seem even the most famous foam pie intervention on earth could not save the marriage of the world’s most powerful media magnate.
News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from his wife Wendi.
Wendi Deng Murdoch shot to fame in 2011 when, during a select committee hearing into the phone-hacking scandal, she leapt to her husband’s defence as a protester tried to hit Mr Murdoch with a plate of foam.
The attacker, later revealed to be comedian Jonnie Marbles, was met with a robust defence as Ms Deng slapped the foam back into his face (see below).
She became an instant social media sensation, nicknamed the “slap-down sister” on Twitter.
Deng arrived in America in 1988 and married Murdoch a decade later. They have two daughters – Grace who was born in 2001, and Chloe in 2005.
In September 2011 it was reported by Vogue magazine that former prime minister Tony Blair had become godfather to one of the girls during a ceremony on the banks of the river Jordan the previous year.
A person said to be familiar with the divorce proceedings told the Associated Press that a sealed document stated “the relationship between the husband and wife has broken down irretrievably.”
Mr Murdoch has four other children by two previous wives: Prudence, James, Lachlan and Elizabeth. They have equal voting rights in electing trustees to run a family trust that controls nearly 40 per cent of the voting shares of News Corp. His daughters with Wendi Deng Murdoch are beneficiaries of non-voting shares.
The news of the Murdoch’s divorce comes in the week before the company begins a process of splitting into two companies. One will have a publishing division and Australian tv assets. The other company will have the global tv and movie businesses.
