At the well-known fish tavern of Tinos, “Thalassaki,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Rupert Murdoch dined on Thursday evening with their spouses.

The Australian-American media mogul was accompanied not only by his wife, Elena Zhukova, but also by close associates, such as the iron lady of his newspapers and CEO of his group, Rebekah Brooks, and the editor of the New York Post, Keith Poole.

The leading media magnate, owner of a “media colossus” that ranges from newspapers such as The Sun and the New York Post to the television giant Fox News, arrived on the island aboard his impressive yacht, M’BRACE, after anchoring the previous day off Diamanti beach in Skiathos.

Who is Keith Rupert Murdoch

The 94-year-old Keith Rupert Murdoch epitomizes the media mogul, with decisive influence on political developments in at least three countries for decades: his homeland Australia—he was born in Melbourne on March 11, 1931—, Britain, and the United States. In Australia, he is regarded as the most influential non-political figure of the 1980–2000 period.

Sharp, open to business ventures, tireless in his activities and subversive in his choices, innovative and often ruthless in his moves, he “built” a true media empire. He began by succeeding his father, who owned numerous regional media outlets in Australia.

His career

Through his company News Corp, he remained active until September 2023, when he decided to retire from active duty, resigning from the chairmanship and passing the succession of his group to his son Lachlan. The group owns dozens of local, national, and international publishing houses around the world. High-circulation titles such as the British newspapers The Sun and The Times, the Australian Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian, as well as the flagship of business journalism in the US, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, were under his control. The group is also active in many European and Asian countries.

His empire further includes the American TV channel Fox News and Sky News Australia. He was also the owner of Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox (until 2019), and the now-defunct News of the World. His fortune today, according to Forbes, amounts to $24.1 billion, ranking him 89th on the global list.

A master of business deals, Murdoch sold the bulk of Fox’s film studio, FX, National Geographic Networks, and his stake in Star India to Disney for $71.3 billion in March 2019.

The Trump dispute

Murdoch’s ties with leading American and British politicians—presidents and prime ministers, especially conservatives—have always been close. Fox News was the only channel to openly support Donald Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.

However, their relationship is now strained, as the U.S. President filed a lawsuit a month ago in a federal court in Miami against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, and two Wall Street Journal journalists, demanding $10 billion in damages for defamation.

The lawsuit concerns a WSJ article about a letter Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 for his 50th birthday, which included a cartoon with sexual innuendos suggesting a personal relationship between the two men. On Truth Social, the U.S. President lashed out at Murdoch’s media, accusing them of a “fake news” campaign.

Succession of the group

His son Lachlan currently heads the new Fox, which consists of broadcast, cable news, business, and sports networks. However, succession has been the subject of an intra-family legal dispute for a year and a half, after a Nevada court rejected Murdoch’s request to secure control of the empire for his eldest son.

The court did not alter the existing irrevocable trust, which divides control of the company equally among Murdoch’s four eldest children—Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence—after his death.

Five marriages, six children

This is indicative of the stormy personal life of the mogul, who has had five marriages and six children. In 1956, he married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne. The couple had a daughter, Prudence, in 1958. They divorced in 1967.

That same year, Murdoch married Anna Torv, a Scottish trainee journalist working for his Sydney newspaper, the Daily Mirror. They divorced in June 1999, after having three children: Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James.

On June 25, 1999, just 17 days after his second divorce, the then 68-year-old Murdoch married 30-year-old Wendi Deng, of Chinese origin, a Yale School of Management graduate and newly appointed vice president of STAR TV, a network owned by the mogul. With her, he had two daughters, Grace and Chloe. The couple divorced in 2013.

On January 11, 2016, he announced his engagement to former model Jerry Hall. On March 4 of the same year, just before his 85th birthday, they were married in London. In August 2022, they officially divorced.

Murdoch then quickly became involved with Ann Lesley Smith. They got engaged in April 2023, but just two weeks later, the mogul suddenly called off the engagement, reportedly disturbed by Smith’s religious views and her devotion to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was fired from the network three weeks later.

Murdoch’s “story” continued, however. In March 2024, he became engaged to 68-year-old retired Russian molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, the former wife of Russian businessman Alexander Zhukov. They were married in June 2024 at Murdoch’s estate in California. Through this marriage, Murdoch also became the stepfather of Dasha Zhukova, the former wife of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.