Rupert Murdoch engaged for the sixth time aged 92

By Rob Freeman, PA

Rupert Murdoch has become engaged for the sixth time, according to reports.

The 92-year-old will marry Elena Zhukova, 67, in June according to The New York Times, with invitations sent out.

Mr Murdoch is believed to have been dating the retired Russian molecular biologist for several months.

The Australian-born media tycoon, who stood down as chairman of Fox and News Corp last year, has been married four times.

His engagement to former police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith was called off just two weeks after being announced in April 2023.

Mr Murdoch married his first wife, former flight attendant Patricia Booker, in 1956 and the couple had one daughter, Prudence.

After their divorce 11 years later, his second marriage to Anna Torv, a trainee journalist he met while she was working on one of his Australian titles, lasted more than 30 years.

At various times, each of their three adult children – Elisabeth, Lachlan and James – appeared to have been in line to inherit his mantle.

Mr Murdoch had two further children – daughters Grace and Chloe – by his third wife Wendi Deng, who he married in 1999, just three weeks after he divorced Anna.

In 2016, Mr Murdoch surprised the world by marrying former model Jerry Hall – an ex-partner of Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger with whom she had four children. The marriage lasted six years before they too divorced.

Mr Murdoch’s media empire, which started in Australia in the 1950s, included buying the News Of The World and The Sun in 1969, the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and TV channel Fox News, which was launched in 1996.