Anna Murdoch

Scottish-Australian socialite and news figure. One of four kids of an Estonian refugee engineer and his Scottish wife, she was brought up in Kirkintilloch until she was nine, when the family emigrated to Australia. She followed a career in journalism which led her to interview, and later marry, Keith Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate. After 31 years of marriage, they separated in May 1998. As she is a committed Catholic, her petition for divorce, asking for an accounting of the couple's assets, filed in Los Angeles in July 1998, was a shock. The Murdoch's are known for being intensely private, straitlaced and family-oriented. Murdoch is estimated to be worth $5.3 billion according to Forbes and the divorce settlement could be the biggest in history. A novelist, Anna Murdoch's second book, "Family Business" is the story about family infighting over control of a media dynasty. The Murdoch's and their three kids own 30% of the company with enough voting shares for Murdoch to run the place like a fiefdom. Anna sits on the board and their oldest son, Lachlan, is in line to take over. Lachlan, 26, runs the Australian operations and is a promising executive. Elisabeth, 29, is general manager of the British satellite-TV branch and James, 25, is deputy publisher of the New York Post. "It's a personal issue between them," said James, "It is not a business issue that we're going to start fighting over." A former butler wrote in the English magazine "Punch" that Murdoch is a man who loves his work and has little time and interest in the cultural events his wife enjoyed or in domestic tranquility. Perhaps Anna wanted more of a marriage. Link to Wikipedia biography