This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, our media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
Mega-mogul Rupert Murdoch will soon be without a head of state on speed dial in the U.S., Australia, or the U.K. following Boris Johnson’s resignation, but at least he can always count on eldest son Lachlan Murdoch—who played a key role in advising his father to divorce Jerry Hall, Confider has learned.
While many were surprised by the split, the couple started drifting apart in the fall, according to two people familiar with the matter. A key sign that things were over was Hall’s absence at Rupert’s summer party at the Serpentine Gallery, which BoJo attended, in London last month, multiple sources said.
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But it was Lachlan who helped advise his father, 91, to pull the pin on his six-year-long fourth marriage, even playing a part in legal and PR strategies, according to those familiar with the matter.
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The Daily Mail previously reported that Hall, 65, blamed Murdoch’s children for the split, which was apparently initiated via an email from Rupert. The divorce, as first reported by The New York Times, will not affect the family’s ownership in companies like Fox News or the Wall Street Journal.
The elder Murdoch has since focused his attention on helping to steer his multimillion-dollar investment in talkTV and rejigger its ratings-challenged star Piers Morgan’s show.
The mogul is committed to the show, sources said, but he thinks it is too heavy on entertainment, although it was Morgan’s interview with singer Macy Gray, in which she made transphobic remarks, that generated worldwide headlines. But there are some signs of improvement with Morgan appearing more across Fox News Media platforms and cracking 100,000 YouTube subscribers.
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