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What Is the 'Jaw-Dropping' Reason Behind Murdoch's Divorce?

Rumor Mill

Is there a bombshell behind Rupert Murdoch’s divorce?

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Ian West/PA Wire,via AP

The Murdoch divorce is fast turning into the kind of saga that could sell a million newspapers a day, and in the latest bit of pot-stirring, Robert Peston, the BBC's usually sober and buttoned-down financial correspondent, sent out an extraordinary tweet last night: “‘Am also told that the undisclosed reasons for Murdoch divorcing Deng are jaw-dropping—& hate myself for wanting to know what they are.”

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What could he mean? The incendiary comment is being taken particularly seriously as Peston is said by Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff to be good friends with key Murdoch lieutenant Will Lewis.

Wolff says: “We can only speculate about what he might mean. However, a year ago, she gave an interview to The New York Times suggesting that they were living independent lives. And Wendi’s emails go through News Corp., so the company surely knows who she is talking to and what she is up to.”

Wolff’s remark chimes with The Daily Beast’s report yesterday that the couple have been sleeping in separate bedrooms for some time.

Wolff, added on his Twitter account: "I'm hearing the WHY, the big reveal, the scandal details, could come tomorrow."

In another tweet he wrote: “Murdoch threatened to do bad things to me (some he did) if I revealed affair w/Wendi started before he left his wife.”

Peston’s tweet, which slyly suggests he has off-the-record info despite its claim of ignorance, has triggered a predictable guessing game on Twitter as punters attempt to unearth the real reasons behind the split.

Here are some of the (nonlibelous) ones:

@asbarboz The reason is money honey.

@woodoo79 Feels like the press all know the “shocking” reason Murdoch divorce is happening but too scared of the News Corps legal cartel to say it.

@PTwalnut How ironic would it be if the reason for Rupert Murdoch’s divorce is that the wife doesn’t listen.