Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng married less than a month after he finalized his divorce from Anna Maria Torv and soon had two girls of their own, Grace and Chloe. By 2004, Rupert wanted to bring them into the family trust too. And so he entered a protracted negotiation with his four oldest children, with Anna’s lawyers closely monitoring their talks to ensure that any new trust adhered to their divorce agreement. The structure of the new trust was complex. In exchange for receiving generous regular payouts from the trust, the four oldest Murdoch children agreed to bring in their new siblings. Six subtrusts were created, one for each of them and one each for Grace and Chloe. All six children would be entitled to an equal share of Rupert’s fortune. But crucially, Prue, Liz, Lachlan and James retained all the voting power. The new trust would expire in 2030. Until then, all of its shares are held together as a single bloc. The trust holds roughly 40 percent of the voting stock in the two Murdoch companies — worth more than $7 billion in 2025. It is an inviolable trust, though Rupert’s lawyers insisted on preserving at least a sliver of flexibility. They included an amendment that allows him to make changes to any of the adult children’s subtrusts if he determines that the change is in the best interest of that particular beneficiary. An attempt to change to trust to assure Lachlan Murdoch remained in control of the Murdoch companies at the death of his father was blocked by a Nevase court in 2024 - leaving the families succession plans uncertain.
| Types | Organization, Business |