Rupert Murdoch is dating again, four months after abruptly breaking off his engagement to the conservative radio host Ann Lesley Smith.
The 92-year-old media mogul met his new girlfriend, Elena Zhukova, 66, at a large family gathering held by his ex-wife Wendi Deng, Guardian Australia has confirmed.
It is understood Deng and Murdoch are on good terms and she invites Murdoch to family events involving their two children together, Chloe and Grace.
The Chinese-born business woman and Murdoch divorced in 2013 after 14 years’ marriage.
Murdoch has been married four times while Zhukova is a retired scientist who was married to the billionaire businessman Alexander Zhukov.
Murdoch invited her out after meeting at the family party, sources said. The relationship is serious and the couple has been cruising together in the Mediterranean for several weeks.
Photographs of a relaxed-looking Murdoch wearing shorts, a Ralph Lauren polo top and a wide-brimmed sun hat were published by the Daily Mail. The Guardian has independently confirmed the relationship.
Zhukova’s daughter, Darya Zhukova, was married to the Russian oligarch and former Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich until 2018.
Murdoch and Zhukova are on an extended holiday, and have reportedly been spotted aboard the Christina O, the legendary yacht once owned by Aristotle Onassis.
The Christina O, on which Onassis famously romanced Jackie Kennedy, is now available to rent.
Murdoch is already on to his second relationship after divorcing his fourth wife, the former supermodel Jerry Hall, in August last year.
He was engaged to marry Smith, also 66, earlier this year before dramatically calling it off just weeks after it was announced in the New York Post, a newspaper Murdoch owns.
“I was very nervous,” he told the New York Post upon his engagement. “I dreaded falling in love – but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy.”
Murdoch ended his engagement after becoming increasingly uncomfortable about his fiancee’s evangelical views, sources said.
As well as Grace and Chloe, who joined the couple in the Mediterranean, Murdoch has four older children from his first three marriages: Prudence MacLeod, with his first wife, Patricia Booker, and Elisabeth, Lachlan and James with his second wife, Anna Mann.
It’s been a year of setbacks for the Murdoch empire, with a staggering US$787.5m settlement between Fox News and the voting equipment company Dominion.
Days after settling the Dominion suit Lachlan Murdoch, the Fox Corporation CEO, dropped his defamation suit against the tiny independent Australian website Crikey.
Lachlan sued Crikey, claiming the articles conveyed a meaning that he illegally conspired with Donald Trump to “incite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitol” in Washington DC on 6 January 2021.
In January Murdoch Sr decided to scrap a proposal to reunite his media empire News Corp – home to the Times, Sun, Wall Street Journal and the Australian – with Fox, broadcaster of Fox News and the crown jewel NFL games.
