Today, Fox News is one of the most influential television networks in the world, certainly in the United States. Its influence and reach have become so significant that it will be written about for years to come in the history books. Fox News and other similar conglomerates, such as The Wall Street Journal and The Times, are the media playthings of Rupert Murdoch, an Australian media mogul who has built a net worth of over $18 billion from his investments in the media. Both as a man who helped shape history and as one of the richest men in America, his name will go down in history as a man of great stature. Learn more about him and his life below.
The biography of Rupert Murdoch
A fact that few people know due to the locality of His main asset in America is that Rupert Murdoch was born in Australia and was an Australian for a long time. He was born to parents, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Sir Keith Murdoch, on March 11, 1931 in Melbourne, Australia. Although the world knows him as Rupert Murdoch, his birth name is Keith Rupert Murdoch, named after his father. He was raised alongside three other siblings, Jane Calvert-Jones, Anne Kantor and Helen Handbury.
The popular disposition about billionaires is that they were able to create such wealth with the help of their parents. While that may not be the case for a sizable number of billionaires, there are a few for whom the sentiment is more sincere than that of Rupert Murdoch, who started out in the media business after ceding control of the his father’s company, News Limited. Before returning to found the family business, Murdoch had followed the path of formal education and attended Worcester College, Oxford after graduating from Geelong Grammar School. At Worcester he studied philosophy, politics and economics.
As a journalist, journalism and the print media was second nature to Rupert Murdoch and it began to manifest itself in high school when he became co-editor of the official school newspaper. He then continued his activities in Worcester, where he ran the Oxford Student Publications Limited.
After his BA program at Worcester, he returned to his family’s business, News Limited, shortly after his father’s death. Rupert Murdoch, then 21, was hugely successful at the helm of his father’s business. With the growing success of the company’s main newspaper, The News, Murdoch began acquiring other media platforms and building a media empire.
As he turned to cash-strapped newspapers and publications in Australia, he began to expand his reach beyond the country, into countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In the UK he bought newspapers, News of the World and The Sun. The company then acquired The Times in 1981 and also owned BSkyB, who are the owners of Sky Television in the UK.
His foray into the United States in 1981 required him to renounce his Australian nationality to become an American citizen and invest in the ownership of American television. He then bought Twentieth Century Fox in 1985, HarperCollins in 1989 and the popular Wall Street Journal in 2007. He expanded to other continents such as Europe and Asia and by 2000 he owned over 800 other companies in more than 50 countries.
The level of influence his media properties garnered and bequeathed, made him a prominent figure in most major countries of the world, including global powers such as Britain and the United States. Although he is no longer a legal citizen, he still holds prominence in his home country of Australia and has been the subject of political controversy in several countries.
Wife or spouse, children
Rupert Murdoch’s first attempt at a married life was with Patricia Booker in 1956. He was married to her from 1956 to 1967 and the marriage produced a child, Prudence. His second marriage, in 1967, was to Anna Maria Torv, a renowned journalist and writer. This is his longest marriage so far, which ended in 1999. He had three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James Murdoch.
His third marriage was to Wendi Deng in 1999 and he was with her until 2013 the marriage produced two children – Grace and Chloe. He is currently married to his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, who he married in 2016.
Many of his children hold one position or another in his various companies. His eldest son, James Murdoch is the managing director of British Sky Broadcasting. Due to his six children, Rupert Murdoch is currently a grandfather of thirteen.
Net worth, companies
Rupert Murdoch’s life creating and selling media properties has helped him achieve a personal net worth of $18.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine estimates. The significant net worth comes from ownership of hundreds of media companies. Most of these companies are grouped under two big umbrellas, namely 21st Century Fox and News Corporation.
Some of the companies under 21st Century Fox include Fox News, National Geographic US, Twentieth Century Fox Film, BSkyB (UK), Tata Sky, FOX Broadcasting Company, etc. Post, Digital Real Estate Services, HarperCollins, etc.