Settlement: $1.7B
Cost/Day: $145K
Anna received $1.7B in assets from the media mogul, one of the largest at the time.
Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born media titan behind News Corporation, met Anna Torv in the late 1960s. Anna was a journalist working for one of Murdoch's Sydney newspapers — a meeting that neatly encapsulated how intertwined their lives would become. They married in 1967 and had three children together: Prudence, Elisabeth, and Lachlan, all of whom would go on to play significant roles in the Murdoch empire. For decades, Anna was seen as a stabilising force behind one of the most powerful and volatile men in global business.
Murdoch inherited a single newspaper in Adelaide and built it into a global media empire encompassing Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, HarperCollins, and 20th Century Fox. The empire spanned print, broadcast, and entertainment across multiple continents. Much of this expansion occurred during his marriage to Anna, making her a central figure in the wealth-building years.
Rupert and Anna married in April 1967 and remained together for over three decades. Cracks reportedly appeared as Rupert became increasingly focused on his business ambitions and less present as a husband and father. In 1999, Murdoch filed for divorce — and in a move that shocked observers — announced his engagement to Wendi Deng, a News Corporation executive in her early thirties, just days after the divorce was finalised.
Anna received approximately $1.7 billion in the settlement, primarily in the form of News Corporation stock and other assets. The settlement was considered one of the largest in history at the time, though it represented a small fraction of Murdoch's overall fortune, which was valued in the tens of billions. Anna also retained a significant stake in various family properties and other holdings.
The duration of the marriage, combined with Anna's role in supporting Murdoch's career during the formative decades of his empire-building, gave her a strong legal claim. The settlement also reflected the practical reality that any prolonged court battle would have been damaging to News Corporation's stock price and reputation — Murdoch had every incentive to settle swiftly and generously.
Murdoch retained full operational control of News Corporation and quickly remarried. His new wife, Wendi Deng, became a visible figure at company events, though that marriage also ended — in divorce in 2013. Anna used her settlement to pursue philanthropic work and largely withdrew from public life, a stark contrast to her decades in the spotlight as Murdoch's wife.
At $1.7 billion, the Murdoch-Anna settlement was among the largest ever recorded at the time of the divorce. It was later surpassed by a series of tech and finance mega-settlements, including those involving Bezos, Gates, and the Russian oligarchs. Within the media industry, it remains the benchmark against which all other executive divorces are measured.
Murdoch has since divorced twice more — from Wendi Deng in 2013 and from Jerry Hall in 2022, racking up a record of failed marriages almost as impressive as his business record. Anna, by contrast, has kept a low profile and is regarded by many Murdoch insiders as the most consequential partner he ever had — the one who helped hold the empire together during its critical growth phase.