Jerry Hall has been left “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the abrupt end to her marriage to Rupert Murdoch, blaming his children for driving a wedge between them, it has been reported.
Hall was waiting in the UK for media tycoon Murdoch, 91, to join her when he sent an email saying their marriage was over, the Daily Mail reports. The message added that she should communicate with him only via his lawyers. The model is said to have told a friend: “I still love him. I am devastated.”
Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp, who is reputedly worth £14bn, married Hall in 2016.
The Mail reports that tensions between Hall and Murdoch’s children occurred during the pandemic. Sources within Hall’s camp told the newspaper she apparently assumed a “gatekeeping” role to keep her husband safe from Covid. She believes that led his family to think she was seeking to cut their regular contact with their father.
“They thought that Jerry was keeping them from him,” a friend is quoted as saying. “She does blame the children for souring the marriage. They had a lot to say about it and a role in his personal life, which she found a nasty surprise. Clearly, they mistrusted her.”
Earlier this year, according to the source, there were discussions with Hall and the wider family about her financial status and what she might get when Murdoch died, the paper reports. It is said some of the family were concerned that no further provision should be made for Hall at this time, according to the Mail.
She and Murdoch, whose media empire includes the Sun and Times newspapers as well as Fox News in the US, signed a prenuptial agreement.
The source added: “Jerry is truly devastated by what has happened and insists that it was all a bolt from the blue. One day they were making plans to be together for the summer in London, then there was this message instructing her to only contact him via lawyers.”
Hall, who is 66 on Saturday, has four children with Sir Mick Jagger. She started dating Murdoch in 2015, and they were first seen together attending a Rugby World Cup match.
Hall is said to be staying with her daughter in Henley. The end of the marriage became public after she and her family were absent from Murdoch’s annual summer party last week. A spokesperson for Murdoch did not have any comment to make, the Mail reported.
