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By Dawn Chmielewski
Updated September 9, 2025 — 7.16am
The Murdoch family reached a deal that will see Rupert Murdoch’s politically conservative son Lachlan Murdoch cement control of the family media empire which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
Fox Corp said that it has reached a mutual resolution on the legal proceedings related to the Murdoch Family Trust, resulting in the termination of all litigation.
New family trusts will be established to benefit Lachlan Murdoch, Grace Murdoch and Chloe Murdoch. Three of Murdoch’s children, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch, will cease being beneficiaries of any trust holding shares in Fox or News Corp.Credit: AP
New family trusts will be established to benefit Lachlan Murdoch, Grace Murdoch and Chloe Murdoch.`
Three of Murdoch’s children, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch, will cease being beneficiaries of any trust holding shares in Fox or News Corp. According to the New York Times, under the terms of the deal, the trio will receive $US1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) each for all their shares in the empire.
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The children exiting the family trust will receive cash compensation funded, in part, from the sale of about 16.9 million shares of Fox Class B stock and about 14.2 million shares of News Corp’s Class B common stock. The amount of the payment was not disclosed.
The seeds of the attempted coup against his own children were laid back in 2019, when Fox sold its movie studio assets to Disney for $US71 billion, and Rupert’s thoughts turned to control of the remaining news business and his troublesome son James, who could blow up its conservative stance.
Rupert encouraged Lachlan to use the $US2.1 billion he received from the sale to buy out his three elder siblings, and cement his control of the company – as Rupert did with his siblings decades earlier.
Lachlan’s offer to buy them out at a 50 per cent discount failed.
Rupert later proposed a plan to just buy James out, which his sisters rejected.
In 2023, Lachlan’s long-time consigliere, News Ltd executive Siobhan McKenna, hatched a bold new plan to change the terms of the “irrevocable trust” by arguing Lachlan’s control was in the best interests of all trust beneficiaries.
It triggered the most bitter internal battle that the family had experienced.
More to come
Reuters
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