© AFP
92-year-old Rupert Murdoch, owner of hundreds of media outlets worldwide, is getting married again, The New York Times reports. In June he will tie the knot with his girlfriend Elena Zhukova, 25 years his junior.
Rupert Murdoch, still owner of media conglomerate News Corp, has been dating Elena Zhukova, a 67-year-old retired Russian molecular biologist, for several months. The rumor that the two were a couple has been circulating since his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith abruptly ended in April last year. Murdoch and Zhukova are said to have met at a party hosted by one of his ex-wives, Chinese entrepreneur Wendi Deng.
Although it is his sixth engagement, the wedding – which is expected to take place in June at his Moraga estate in California – will be his fifth. Murdoch was previously married to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, Scottish journalist Anna Mann and American model Jerri Hall. Zhukova was previously married to Russian oil billionaire Alexander Zhukov, while their daughter Dasha was married to well-known oligarch Roman Abramovich until 2017.
Australian-born Rupert Murdoch began his career in media in the 1950s and bought the British newspapers News of the World and The Sun in 1969. He would later buy a number of American publications, such as the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. In 1996, he launched Fox News, now the most watched TV news channel in the United States.
Through his media company News Corp, founded in 2013, of which he stepped down as chairman last year, he currently remains the owner of hundreds of local, national and international media channels.
However, his career has never been without controversy. One of the most damaging moments was the infamous phone hacking scandal that broke out in the UK when it emerged that the News of the World had listened to the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.