Media magnate Murdoch marries again at age 93

AFP | Los Angeles, United States

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has married for the fifth time at age 93, tying the knot with a retired molecular biologist a quarter century younger than him.

Murdoch and Elena Zhukova, 67, were wedded Saturday at the media mogul’s California vineyard and estate, called Moraga.

Photographs published in The Sun, the British tabloid owned by Murdoch, show the couple posing and smiling -- he in a black suit and yellow tie and she in an off-the-shoulder white gown as she clutched a bouquet of lilies of the valley.

Jet-set guests at the nuptials included Robert Kraft, 82, the owner of the New England Patriots US football team, and his 50-year-old wife Dana Blumberg, news reports said.

Murdoch had previously been married four times, most recently to model Jerry Hall, Last year, Murdoch announced his engagement to dental hygienist-turned-conservative radio host Ann Lesley Smith, but called off the planned nuptials less than a month later.

Zhukova, who emigrated to the United States from Russia, is a retired molecular biologist. Her daughter, Dasha Zhukova, an arts patron and entrepreneur, was formerly married to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Murdoch, who has six children, was first married to Patricia Booker, an Australian flight attendant, whom he divorced in the late 1960s.

He and his second wife, Anna Torv, a newspaper reporter, were together more than 30 years before divorcing in 1999. His third marriage to Wendi Deng ended in 2013.

The Australia-born Murdoch, whose media empire includes The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and other influential outlets, and his family have a network of about $20 billion, according to Forbes.