Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has married for the fifth time, to a Jewish molecular biologist named Elena Zhukova.
Murdoch, 93, who is not Jewish, married Zhukova, 67, who is the former mother-in-law of Russian-Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The pair married on Saturday in a ceremony at Murdoch’s summer estate in Bel Air, California.
His media company News Corp confirmed the merger.
His new wife Zhukova was born in Moscow to Jewish parents and immigrated to the US in 1991.
Murdoch, who has six children, was most recently married to model and actor Jerry Hall, but the pair divorced in 2022.
He was previously married to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, Scottish-born journalist Anna Mann and television presenter Wendi Deng.
Before marrying Zhukova, he was briefly engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a former radio presenter from the US, but broke off the engagement in March 2023.
Deng was the only one of his ex-wives to attend his last wedding. It is learned that she and Zhukova met each other at a party she held last year.
Rupert Murdoch and his new bride Elena Zhukova on their wedding day (Photo: NewsCorp)
Murdoch was married to Deng between 1999 and 2013 and they have two daughters.
Zhukova was previously married to Alexander Zhukov, a billionaire energy investor and Russian politician.
The pair have a daughter together named Dasha, who attended a Jewish day school in California.
Dasha went on to marry Russian billionaire Abramovich, but they divorced in 2018.
Roman Abramovich with his then-girlfriend Daria Zhukova in 2010 (Photo by Alexander Fyodorov/Epsilon/Getty Images)
Elena Zhukova, who moved to Los Angeles to work at the University of California in 1994, specialized in the study of diabetes before retiring.
The happy couple at their wedding (Photo NewsCorp)
According to the Daily Mail, a UCLA colleague said: “Elena already came from a rich background. Then her daughter married a billionaire. Now that the wedding is over, the happy couple plan to spend most of their time at the Bel Air estate, where Rupert is continuing to work on developing an internationally renowned winery.
Despite not being Jewish, Murdoch is often misidentified as such in the context of anti-Semitic conspiracies about Jews and the media.
The Australian-born media mogul is chairman emeritus of News Corporation, which owns Fox News, Wall Street Journal, SUN AND Times.
Murdoch stepped down as leader of Fox News’ parent company and his media company News Corp last year, leaving his son Lachlan in charge.
In 2012, Murdoch faced criticism for a tweet in which he attacked the “Jewish-owned press” for being “so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis”.
He was tweeting in the context of ongoing violence in the Middle East, with Israel stepping up attacks on Gaza following a long series of rocket attacks by Hamas.
He later apologized for the tweet saying it was “inappropriate”.
In a letter to the Anti-Defamation League, Murdoch wrote: “I feel very strongly about the justice of Israel’s cause, especially when its citizens are under missile attack.
“So I get very upset when I see coverage that I think is unfair and biased toward Israel. But I should have stayed to the point and not brought up trivial and inaccurate ethnic issues.”
At the time, Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, said: “Having spoken with Mr Murdoch, it is clear that he deeply regrets posting his comment on Twitter and understands how his reference to ‘the media Jewish-owned’ could play into the age-old antisemite. conspiracy theories about ‘Jewish control’ of the news media.
“We appreciate his effort to apologize and make it clear that his remarks were an attempt to defend Israel made at a time when the Jewish state is under direct attack and were not intended to hurt or offend .”