- Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch, 89, helms a media empire made up of newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, television networks like Fox News, and a handful of other publications across the world.
- A new three-part documentary on Murdoch’s life and influence debuted on BBC Two this week.
- Murdoch inherited his very first newspaper from his father, who was a war reporter turned publisher.
- Bloomberg estimates his individual net worth to be $6.34 billion as of July 13, while Forbes pegs the Murdoch family’s collective fortune at $17 billion.
- Following Disney’s $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox assets, Murdoch distributed $12 billion in proceeds to his six children.
- In December 2019, Murdoch’s son Lachlan purchased Chartwell, a historic Bel-Air estate, for $150 million. The purchase set a California record and is the third-priciest home sale ever recorded in the US.
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Rupert Murdoch’s name is one synonymous with media, but it took decades to build his sprawling empire.
He owns dozens upon dozens of newspapers spanning three continents, founded the Fox network — responsible for revolutionizing cable television to what it is today — in the 1980s, and has a net worth $6.34 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which pegs him as the 300th-richest person in the world. Forbes, meanwhile, ranks Murdoch and his family at No. 68 on their own billionaires list with a combined net worth of $17 billion.
Over the span of his five-decade career, Murdoch has been in four marriages and has six kids. He’s also been the subject of a variety of scandals, most prominently when his UK-based paper News of the World was forced to shutter after it was found to have hacked the phone of a slain teenager.
In March 2019, Murdoch received $12 billion from Disney’s purchase of Fox assets and distributed the proceeds to his children, boosting his dynasty’s collective wealth.
Take a look at how Murdoch got his start, the deals he has made, and the growth of his family and empire.
