--- description: After 14 years, two children and a close shave with a cream pie, Rupert Murdoch, 82, filed for divorce from his wife Wendi Deng, 44,... title: Rupert and Wendi: The Rise and Fall of a Media Couple image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5bad3a19d092c41/698a96deb3fce3fa540d38fe/murdochdivorce.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) # Rupert and Wendi: The Rise and Fall of a Media Couple by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jun 14, 2013 5:00 PM CUT  News Corporation Chief Executive and Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, leaves with his wife Wendi after giving evidence for the second day at the Leveson Inquiry at the High Court in London April 26, 2012\. REUTERS/Olivia Harris (BRITAIN - Tags: MEDIA SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT CRIME LAW POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR318XU News Corporation Chief Executive and Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, leaves with his wife Wendi after giving evidence for the second day at the Leveson Inquiry at the High Court in London April 26, 2012\. REUTERS/Olivia Harris (BRITAIN - Tags: MEDIA SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT CRIME LAW POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR318XUREUTERS by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jun 14, 2013 5:00 PM CUT After 14 years, two children and a close shave with a cream pie, Rupert Murdoch, 82, filed for divorce from his wife Wendi Deng, 44, on Thursday, saying that their relationship had “broken down irretrievably.” Deng became an overnight celebrity in 2011 when she leaped to her husband’s defense at a British judicial hearing, earning her the moniker “tiger wife.” But even before that incident, media couple Murdoch and Deng were subjects of intense press coverage. TIME has condensed their high-profile relationship into a timeline of courtship, marriage and now divorce. _—Dan Kedmey_ ## Stars Align 
In 1993, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought a majority share in Asia’s largest broadcaster, Star TV, for half a billion dollars. "The potential in Asia is enormous," Murdoch said of the deal, a remark that would prove to be prophetic of his personal life as well. Star TV would hire Wendi Deng, a Chinese-born graduate of the Yale School of management, to work as an intern on the business-development team. timeadmin ## Business Turns Personal 
At the end of a Star TV staff meeting in 1997, Deng caught Murdoch’s attention with a startlingly direct question: “Why is your China strategy so bad,” she asked. “That was a very interesting question,” Murdoch reportedly said to her after the meeting, “I’d like to talk to you more.” He hired Deng to accompany him as an interpreter on his frequent business trips to Shanghai and Beijing. Back at the Star TV office, rumors spread among the staff that Murdoch had found himself “a girlfriend,” and according to the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch was seen holding hands with Deng after a dinner meeting in Hong Kong. timeadmin ## One Marriage Ends ... 
Murdoch ended his 31-year-marriage to Anna Torv Murdoch in 1998\. The New York Post, one of Murdoch’s papers, called it an “amicable separation,” but Anna’s recollection of events, according to New York magazine, were slightly less than amicable. She claimed Murdoch kicked her off of the board of News Corp., calling her an “embarrassment” in front of the other board members and reducing her to tears. timeadmin ## ... And Another Begins 
On June 25, 1999, 17 days after Murdoch’s divorce became final, he and Deng wedded at a lavish ceremony in New York harbor on his yacht, Morning Glory—which was later sold to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Before tying the knot, she quit her job at Star TV, though continued to play an active role in News Corp.



Deng had previously been married to Jake Cherry, who—with his then wife Joyce—sponsored her student visa and hosted her in Los Angeles in 1988\. After Cherry’s divorce, he and Deng wedded in 1990\. The union lasted two years and seven months—seven months more than the requirement for her to receive a green card, according to the Wall Street Journal. timeadmin ## Born-Again Rupert 
Deng and Murdoch’s first child Grace was born in 2001; their second daughter Chloe was born two years later. His new family coincided with a self-proclaimed moment of renewal for Murdoch, who told a friend, “It keeps me younger … I love having kids around me, and I have a young wife, and it just seemed a natural thing.”



Deng was said to look after the health of Murdoch, a prostate-cancer survivor—he began working with a trainer and started a regimented diet. Despite her involvement in his personal life, Murdoch described Deng as “a bit frustrated” by the limits of her new role as the wife of a media mogul. He then said, “We’ll just have to resolve that somehow”—perhaps heralding Deng’s later role in Murdoch’s businesses. timeadmin ## Woman Behind the Businessman 
Deng, in an unofficial capacity, wielded influence in Murdoch's corporate empire. “Wendi gives News Corp. a Chinese face in China,” Joseph Ravitch, a co-founder and partner at a media-advisory firm that once advised News Corp. on its Asia strategy, told the Wall Street Journal in 2000\. “She represents not just the company but the owner, and that’s critical in a country where families are very important.” timeadmin ## ‘Tiger Wife’ Moment ## Calling It Quits 
On Thursday, Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng. Speculation on what happens to Murdoch’s $11.2-billion empire is rife. "Given that it's his third wife, I see it unlikely that he didn't plan for this contingency," one analyst told Reuters. The existence of a prenuptial agreement between the two has been reported and Deng’s success in getting a share of the empire depends on whether she can prove she was misled when signing it.



Their two daughters have nonvoting stakes in the family trust. This has been a point of contention with his four, much older children from previous marriages — Prudence, Elisabeth, James and Lachlan.



In an interview on Charlie Rose in 2006, Murdoch said his six children would be treated financially equally. But when it comes to controlling the company, he said they would have to figure it out. His statements essentially rendered the two young girls powerless in the future. Subsequently, Vanity Fair reported, Murdoch and Deng had a big fight. As the divorce proceedings begin, they’re likely poised for another. timeadmin ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7150167/rupert-and-wendi-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-media-couple/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7150167/rupert-and-wendi-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-media-couple/"},"headline":"Rupert and Wendi: The Rise and Fall of a Media Couple","datePublished":"2013-06-14T17:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:12:21.843Z","description":"After 14 years, two children and a close shave with a cream pie, Rupert Murdoch, 82, filed for divorce from his wife Wendi Deng, 44,...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7150167/rupert-and-wendi-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-media-couple/","keywords":["Marriage","Divorce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5bad3a19d092c41/698a96deb3fce3fa540d38fe/murdochdivorce.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5bad3a19d092c41/698a96deb3fce3fa540d38fe/murdochdivorce.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"News Corporation Chief Executive and Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, leaves after giving evidence for the second day at the Leveson Inquiry at the High Court in London","caption":"News Corporation Chief Executive and Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, leaves after giving evidence for the second day at the Leveson Inquiry at the High Court in London","creditText":"REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7150167/rupert-and-wendi-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-media-couple/","name":"Rupert and Wendi: The Rise and Fall of a Media Couple"}}]}] ```