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 The chairman of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox and his wife of 14
years, Wendi Deng Murdoch, shook hands and briefly hugged after a
brief proceeding in a Manhattan court.
"We are pleased to announce that we have reached an amicable
settlement of all matters relating to our divorce," the two said in
a statement released through a publicist. "We move forward with
mutual respect and a shared interest in the health and happiness of
our two daughters."
The terms of the agreement weren't disclosed in court, but a person
familiar with the settlement said Wendi Deng Murdoch will keep the
couple's Beijing house and their apartment on Manhattan's Fifth
Avenue. The couple will share custody of the school-age girls, who
are expected to continue living with their mother in Manhattan, said
the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
personal matters.
Rupert Murdoch will retain properties elsewhere, including an estate
in Bel Air, Calif., the person said.
The divorce will be finalized after state Supreme Court Justice
Ellen Gesmer signs some yet-to-be-submitted paperwork. She told the
couple Wednesday she was glad they had resolved the matters
amicably.
The two answered Gesmer's yes-and-no questions about whether they
understood and approved an agreement ending their marriage. Asked
whether he was satisfied with the agreement, Rupert Murdoch replied
in a strong voice, "Yes, your honor."
The two had prenuptial and postnuptial agreements on how a divorce
would proceed if they split, said the person familiar with the
settlement.
The divorce will end a third marriage for the 82-year-old, who got
his start in his family's newspaper business in his native Australia
and built a global media conglomerate. Forbes pegged his and his
family's wealth at $13.4 billion in September.
Murdoch's News Corp. split this year into two companies: the
newspaper and publishing portion, still called News Corp., and the
more profitable film and TV unit, 21st Century Fox. Both are
publicly traded and based in New York.
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The divorce won't affect control of the companies or the succession
plan for them. Rupert Murdoch controls them through a family trust
that benefits his four children from previous marriages - Prudence,
Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.
Upon Rupert Murdoch's death, all four will have an equal say in
what happens to the roughly 38 percent voting stock the trust holds
in both companies.
His and Wendi Deng Murdoch's daughters, Grace and Chloe, are
beneficiaries of 8.7 million non-voting shares being held in a
separate trust.
Wendi Deng Murdoch, 44, worked as a junior executive at News Corp.'s
subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong, where she met her now-husband at a
1997 cocktail party. She left Star TV before marrying the media
mogul in 1999.
She produced the 2011 movie "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,"
released by News Corp.'s Fox Searchlight.
She literally leaped into the spotlight when she jumped up to smack
a protester who was throwing a cream pie at her husband during a
2011 British parliamentary hearing into phone hacking by News Corp.
newspapers.
[Associated
Press; JENNIFER PELTZ]
Associated Press writer
Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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