Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall ‘divorcing’ after six years of marriage, according to report

Rupert Murdoch and his wife Jerry Hall are getting divorced, according to the New York Times.

The “split” between the media titan and the former supermodel was first reported on Wednesday night. It said it had been informed by two people with knowledge of the decision.

Bryce Tom, a spokesperson for Mr Murdoch, declined to comment on the New York Times report. A representative for Ms Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Murdoch, 91, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $17.7 billion, built a sprawling media empire with assets around the globe, including News UK - publishers of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun - and the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Fox News in America. He sold the Fox film and television studios and other entertainment assets to Walt Disney Co in a $71.3 billion deal that was completed in March 2019.

Mr Murdoch has been married three times before. He divorced Ms Deng in 2014 after 14 years of marriage. They have two daughters. Mr Murdoch split from his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann, a Scottish journalist with whom he had three children, in 1999. He and his first wife, Patricia Booker, a former flight attendant with whom he had a daughter, divorced in 1966.

Ms Hall was previously married to the singer Mick Jagger. Their marriage was annulled in 1999.

Mr Murdoch and Ms Hall were married in March 2016 at a low-key ceremony in central London.

At the time the media baron said on Twitter that he was “the luckiest and happiest man in the world.”

They were frequent fodder for the tabloids, which chronicled their marriage at Spencer House and the festivities surrounding Mr Murdoch’s 90th birthday celebration last year at Tavern on the Green in New York City.

Mr Murdoch’s reported divorce is unlikely to alter the ownership structure of businesses he holds stakes in, according to the New York Times report.