Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is once again a married man — he tied the knot with Elena Zhukova, a retired molecular biologist whose daughter was once married to a prominent Russian oligarch.
Zhukova, 67, became the 93-year-old’s fifth wife after several months of dating. Photos published by The Sun, a Murdoch-owned tabloid, showed the pair beaming in a wedding photoshoot at Murdoch’s Moraga vineyard in California. The British tabloid reported that the pair were surrounded by “delighted relatives” on their big day.
Murdoch, who is the owner of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal through his company News Corp—and who was a key inspiration for the HBO show Succession—has six children, one of whom succeeded him as News Corp chairman last year. Zhukova’s daughter, 42-year-old art collector Dasha, was previously married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner who has ties to Vladimir Putin. Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova were married in 2008 and divorced in 2018; she is now married to a son of Greek shipping magnate Phillip Niarchos.
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Reports that Murdoch was dating Zhukova began circulating last April, four months after he broke off a brief engagement to conservative radio host Ann Lesley Smith, 67. Murdoch and Zhukova reportedly met at a family gathering hosted by Murdoch’s third wife, Wendi Deng, according to The Guardian.
Zhukova came to the U.S. shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, and her ex-husband, Alexander Zhukov, is a billionaire energy investor who now lives in London.
