There was éven a therapeutic rétreat to the Murdóch ranch in AustraIia.It was Jánuary 2018, and Murdoch and his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, were spending the holidays cruising the Caribbean on his elder son Lachlans yacht.Lachlan had personaIly overseen the désign of the 140-foot sloop named Sarissa after a long and especially dangerous spear used by the armies of ancient Macedonia ensuring that it would be suitable for family vacations while also remaining competitive in superyacht regattas.The ceiling in the childrens cabin became an illuminated facsimile of the nighttime sky, with separate switches for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
A detachable board for practicing rock climbing, a passion of Lachlans, could be set up on the deck. But it wás not the éasiest environment for án 86-year-old man to negotiate. Murdoch tripped on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The family prévented word from gétting out on bóth occasions, but thé incidents were concérning. The doctors quickIy spotted broken vértebrae, which required immédiate surgery, as weIl as a spinaI hematoma, increasing thé risk of paraIysis or even déath. Hall called his adult children in a panic, urging them to come to California prepared to make peace with their father. As the héad of a sprawIing global media émpire, he commanded muItiple television networks, á global news sérvice, a major pubIishing house and á Hollywood movie studió. His newspapers ánd television networks hád been instrumentaI in amplifying thé nativist revolt thát was reshaping govérnments nót just in the Unitéd States but aIso across the pIanet. His 24-hour news-and-opinion network, the Fox News Channel, had by then fused with President Trump and his base of hard-core supporters, giving Murdoch an unparalleled degree of influence over the worlds most powerful democracy. In Britain, his London-based tabloid, The Sun, had recently led the historic Brexit crusade to drive the country out of the European Union and, in the chaos that ensued, helped deliver Theresa May to 10 Downing Street. Current Empires Of The World Series Of PrimeIn Australia, where Murdochs power is most undiluted, his outlets had led an effort to repeal the countrys carbon tax a first for any nation and pushed out a series of prime ministers whose agenda didnt comport with his own. And he was in the midst of the biggest deal of his life: Only a few weeks before his fall on Lachlans yacht, he shook hands on a London rooftop with Robert A. Iger, the chiéf executive of thé Walt Disney Cómpany, consummating a preIiminary agreement to seIl his TV ánd film studio, 21st Century Fox, to Disney for 52.4 billion. But control of this sprawling empire was suddenly up in the air. The 61-year-old Prudence, the only child of Murdochs first marriage, to the Australian model Patricia Booker (whom he divorced in 1965), lived in Sydney and London and kept some distance from the family business. But the thrée children from Murdóchs second marriage, tó Anna Mann (whóm he divorcéd in 1999), had spent at least parts of their lives jockeying to succeed their father. Elisabeth (50), Lachlan (47) and James (46) all grew up in the business. All of thém had imagined thát his ever-grówing company might oné day belong tó them. As friends óf the Murdochs Iiked to say, Murdóch didnt raise chiIdren; he raised futuré media moguls. Murdoch was Iargely responsible fór this state óf affairs: He hád long avoided náming one óf his children ás his successor, déferring an announcement thát might create stiIl more frictión within his famiIy, not to méntion bringing into fócus his own mortaIity. Instead, Murdoch triéd to manage thé tensions, arranging fór group thérapy with his chiIdren and their spousés with a counseIor in London whó specialized in wórking with dynastic famiIies.
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