Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch married for the fifth time, with Jewish molecular biologist 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 couple tied the knot on Saturday in a ceremony at Murdoch’s wine 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 couple divorced in 2022.
He was previously married to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, Scottish-born journalist Anna Mann and television executive Wendi Deng.
Before marrying Zhukova, he was briefly engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a former American radio host, but broke off the engagement in March 2023.
Deng was the only one of his ex-wives to attend his last wedding. It is understood that she met him and Zhukova at a party she threw 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.
Žukova was previously married to Alexander Žukov, a billionaire, energy investor and Russian politician.
The couple have a daughter together, Dasha, who attended a Jewish day school in California.
Dasha married 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 in 1994 to work at UCLA, specialized in the study of diabetes before retiring.
Happy couple at the 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 nuptials are over, the happy couple plan to spend most of their time at the Bel Air estate where Rupert continues to work on the development of 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, The Wall Street Journalthe Sun and times.
Murdoch stepped down last year as head of parent company Fox News and his media company News Corp, leaving his son Lachlan at the helm.
In 2012, Murdoch faced criticism for a tweet attacking the «Jewish-owned press» for being «so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis».
He tweeted against the backdrop of continued violence in the Middle East, as Israel steps up strikes 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 am very confident in the rightness of the Israeli cause, especially when its citizens are under rocket attack.
“So I get very upset when I see coverage that I feel is unfair and biased against Israel. But I should have stuck to the essence of the issue and not gone into irrelevant and incorrect ethnic matters.»
At the time, Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, said: «After speaking with Mr Murdoch, it is clear that he deeply regrets posting his remark on Twitter and understands how his reference to ‘Jewish-owned media’ could affect old antisemitism conspiracy theories about ‘Jewish control’ of the media.
«We appreciate his effort to apologize and make it clear that his remarks were an attempt to defend Israel at a time when the Jewish state is under direct attack and were not intended to hurt or offend.»
