BECKHAM
14-06-2013, 09:32 AM
Rupert Murdoch divorces for the third time. It's both surprising and unsurprising. Surprising because the most potent public image of his wife, Wendi Deng, remains that moment when she sprang to the defence of Murdoch at a Commons hearing to aim a punch at a man who had thrown a pie at him.
Her protective act, the lioness going into battle for the media lion, suggested an intense marital closeness.
But it is also unsurprising because there have been previous rumours of a rift between the couple. And there was some supporting evidence last year in statements to the US website, Gawker, a former tutor to their daughters, Grace and Chloe.
The woman, Ying-Shu Hsu, claimed that Deng "curses Rupert all the time. A lot of f-words. She's always yelling, crying. Murdoch is the calm type."
She was clearly motivated against Deng, while praising Murdoch as "a gentleman", but I recall a TV documentary filmed during the children's infancy in which it was possible to detect a frisson between the pair.
Otherwise, it had seemed - in public at least - to be a good marriage, albeit one in which it was hard not to note consistently the oddity of an octogenarian being guided through parties by a vivacious ever-smiling younger woman, part hostess, part secretary, part consort.
I watched them at an Oxford university function one evening. She would whisper into his ear as people approached and I couldn't help recalling that Murdoch, even in his younger years, had difficulty remembering peoples' names.
Leaving aside the speculative gossip, however, it is hard to see how this could have any effect on Murdoch's business interests.
It is embarrassing, as all divorces are. It also happens to coincide with the splitting up of News Corporation, which it's probably fair to say he has cherished more than any woman.
For Murdoch, the workaholic creator of a global media empire, the separation of New Corp's publishing businesses from its entertainment divisions is the divorce he really didn't want to go through.
It was made under pressure from shareholders and board members in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
In strictly business terms, Murdoch may have much to thank Deng for. She was influential in his attempt to open the door to News Corp's initial push into China, though success has been limited.
She has also been credited with introducing him to the younger digital revolutionaries - such as Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey - who emerged as News Corp's major rivals.
Ultimately though, Murdoch is a survivor. It is the third broken marriage, but it will not damage the core of his life - his business. At 82, he remains ambitious, hungry. Therefore another nd he divorce is little more than a hiccup.
But will Deng act in future as discreetly as his two previous wives did following their divorces from a man who guards his privacy so jealously? Money, of course, buys silence.
Her protective act, the lioness going into battle for the media lion, suggested an intense marital closeness.
But it is also unsurprising because there have been previous rumours of a rift between the couple. And there was some supporting evidence last year in statements to the US website, Gawker, a former tutor to their daughters, Grace and Chloe.
The woman, Ying-Shu Hsu, claimed that Deng "curses Rupert all the time. A lot of f-words. She's always yelling, crying. Murdoch is the calm type."
She was clearly motivated against Deng, while praising Murdoch as "a gentleman", but I recall a TV documentary filmed during the children's infancy in which it was possible to detect a frisson between the pair.
Otherwise, it had seemed - in public at least - to be a good marriage, albeit one in which it was hard not to note consistently the oddity of an octogenarian being guided through parties by a vivacious ever-smiling younger woman, part hostess, part secretary, part consort.
I watched them at an Oxford university function one evening. She would whisper into his ear as people approached and I couldn't help recalling that Murdoch, even in his younger years, had difficulty remembering peoples' names.
Leaving aside the speculative gossip, however, it is hard to see how this could have any effect on Murdoch's business interests.
It is embarrassing, as all divorces are. It also happens to coincide with the splitting up of News Corporation, which it's probably fair to say he has cherished more than any woman.
For Murdoch, the workaholic creator of a global media empire, the separation of New Corp's publishing businesses from its entertainment divisions is the divorce he really didn't want to go through.
It was made under pressure from shareholders and board members in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
In strictly business terms, Murdoch may have much to thank Deng for. She was influential in his attempt to open the door to News Corp's initial push into China, though success has been limited.
She has also been credited with introducing him to the younger digital revolutionaries - such as Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey - who emerged as News Corp's major rivals.
Ultimately though, Murdoch is a survivor. It is the third broken marriage, but it will not damage the core of his life - his business. At 82, he remains ambitious, hungry. Therefore another nd he divorce is little more than a hiccup.
But will Deng act in future as discreetly as his two previous wives did following their divorces from a man who guards his privacy so jealously? Money, of course, buys silence.