Secret meetings, mind games, backstabbing and siblings pitted against each other were all part of the Murdoch family’s struggle for power.
For the first time, an expose on Rupert’s attempts to override the family’s irrevocable trust has revealed how all the twisted drama has played out over the years.
If this sounds like a plot out of the hit series Succession, that’s because the feuding Murdochs unofficially inspired the Logan family’s fight!
TALE OF A TEARDOWN
A bombshell report from The New York Times revealed the messy scene that unfolded after Rupert Murdoch, 93, and his protégée, son Lachlan, tried to strip James, Prudence and Elisabeth Murdoch of their right to share control of their global multi-billion dollar media empire.
In December 2023, at his home in swanky Mayfair, UK, Rupert had hoped to convince his daughters that the plan to amend the trust – to leave only Lachlan in charge of News Limited and Fox Corp after Rupert’s death – was the only way forward.
“These companies are my legacy,” the media tycoon had pleaded. “I have put everything into them over my life.”
In its thorough exposé, the Times scoured through 3000 pages of court documents from late 2024, when Rupert and Lachlan, 53, faced the trio of pushed out family members in a closed Nevada courtroom.
The court transcript, emails, texts and memos paint the picture of a high-profile family divided, and the nasty dealings that led to the probate hearing to determine the legality of Rupert and Lachlan’s plan. It was dubbed Project Family Harmony, but the reaction to it was far from harmonious.
Liz, 56, didn’t take the rejection well. “You are completely disenfranchising me and my siblings,” she said. “You’ve blown a hole in the family.”
Her older sister, Prue, 67, also took issue with their father appointing Lachlan the “designated leader”. She warned Rupert, “You already lost one son. And you could well lose two daughters over this.”
That son was James, who had “barely spoken” to his father in years by the time the court battle came around. He’d resigned from the News Corp board in 2020 following years of tension with his dad and brother, and by 2023 they were convinced James was trying to stage a coup against Lachlan – courtesy of a Financial Times article of which they believed James to be the source.
“Relies heavily on unnamed sources and quotes from James’ people,” Lachlan wrote in an email to his father.
According to The New York Times, life began to imitate art in 2023 after the Succession episode where patriarch Logan Roy dies – “leaving his family and business in chaos”.
PR STRATEGY
Liz, especially, was in a panic after watching the episode twice and growing “extremely upset” by it. Eager to avoid the fate of the Roy siblings, Liz, Prue and James held a meeting in the conference room at Claridge’s to brainstorm a PR strategy for their father’s death.
“The TV show that I have never seen that had gotten everyone hot under the collar,” James said in court.
In a tell-all with The Atlantic, James admitted he’d watched just one episode of the popular series, but other family members were “obsessed” with it.
In the same interview, which was published last week, James spoke about his father’s “misogynistic” ways when discussing why Liz and Prue were never considered as potential successors.
WITHERING QUESTIONS
A vocal critic of Fox News, James’ rebellious stance against his dad’s political views and leadership was partly the reason Rupert was convinced he and his sisters were plotting to take control of the company when he died. James has denied this.
In a deposition in New York ahead of the probate hearing, James claims he was subjected to “withering questions” by Rupert’s lawyer in court, which actually came from his father.
“He was texting the lawyers questions to ask,” James told The Atlantic. “How f**king twisted is that?”
The lawyer referred to James and his sisters as “white, privileged, multi-billionaire trust-fund babies” and posed the question, “Have you ever done anything successful on your own?”
James’ father and brother called his claims a “litany of falsehoods”. Rupert and Lachlan lost the court battle and it’s now under appeal, with the existing trust due to expire in 2030.
The ties between Rupert and James, Prue and Elisabeth remain severed despite the siblings’ attempts at a truce.
“Put an end to this destructive judicial path so that we can have a chance to heal as a collaborative and loving family,” the siblings wrote to their dad, according to The Atlantic.
Rupert’s response? They should contact his lawyers if they wished to communicate.
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