MEDIA MATRIARCH

Mother of Murdoch Media Empire Heirs Dies at 81

Anna Murdoch-Mann, the second wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, died at home surrounded by family.

Anna Murdoch-Mann, journalist, philanthropist, novelist, and former wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, died Tuesday, aged 81, at her home in Palm Beach, Florida. She was surrounded by family, the New York Post reported. Born Anna Torv in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1944, she emigrated to Australia at the age of nine. After her parents divorced, she raised her younger siblings before launching a reporting career at the Sydney Daily Mirror and later the Sydney Daily Telegraph. She married Rupert Murdoch in 1967 and spent 31 years at his side as he built News Corp into a global media empire. Their split in 1999 drew widespread attention. Reports at the time described the settlement as one of the largest in divorce history, with figures as high as $1.7 billion cited. Murdoch-Mann went on to author three novels and devoted much of her later life to children’s causes, including leadership roles at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Haiti’s Hospital Albert Schweitzer. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made her a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. She leaves behind her husband, Ashton dePeyster, along with her three children, Lachlan, James, and Elisabeth Murdoch, 10 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.