Meet Lachlan Murdoch, who will control his father’s assets after Rupert dies

Rupert Murdoch’s succession drama reached a settlement this week.

The family announced a settlement over control of the trust that holds its stakes in Fox Corp and News Corp to cement Lachlan Murdoch’s control of his father’s assets when Rupert Murdoch dies.

Three of his siblings, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, have been sidelined in exchange for billion-dollar payouts. James Murdoch, in particular, has been outspoken about his opposition to Fox News’ programming.

The dispute has been fought largely behind closed doors in a Nevada court, after Rupert Murdoch announced in September 2023 that he would step down from his roles at Fox Corporation and News Corp.

In a memo to employees, Murdoch said he will hand the reins to his son, Lachlan, who will take over as sole chairman of both companies.

In 2024, a judge ruled that Rupert and Lachlan had acted in “bad faith” in their bid to rewrite the trust.

Going forward, Lachlan and two younger sisters, Grace and Chloe, will have shares in a new trust that will have controlling stakes in both Fox Corp and News Corp. Only Lachlan will have voting power.

Lachlan, 51, was born in London in 1971. He was raised in New York with his older sister Elisabeth and younger brother James.

Lachlan was born to Rupert’s second wife, Anna Torv. His older half-sister, Prudence, was born in 1958 to Rupert and his first wife, Patricia Booker.

According to a 1998 profile of Lachlan, he sometimes woke up before dawn as a child to have breakfast with his father before he left for business meetings.

He would also stay up late listening to Rupert talk business strategy at the dinner table “with famous guests,” according to the profile in The New York Times Magazine.

Growing up, Lachlan was educated at elite private schools like Trinity School in Manhattan, and Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts. He graduated from Aspen Country Day School in Colorado.

Lachlan was reportedly a member of the “Conservative Society” at Trinity, a club formed to address “a definite imbalance of political ideology in the school community,” according to the school’s yearbook.

He attended Princeton and studied philosophy.

Lachlan’s senior thesis focused on German idealism and was titled, “A Study of Freedom and Morality in Kant’s Practical Philosophy.”

When Lachlan was 19, he went to London at his father’s request to observe the British Sky Broadcasting merger.

Lachlan told The New York Times Magazine, “I wanted to put my arms around him and hold him up,” about seeing his father stressed during the merger because of the debt hanging over News Corp.

His father successfully navigated the deal, and Lachlan reportedly never talked about the moment with Rupert again.

After graduating from Princeton, Lachlan oversaw Murdoch media properties in Australia.

In 1997, Lachlan became deputy chief operating officer at News Corp.

News Corp said that Lachlan was “directly responsible” for two-thirds of the company’s global revenue, specifically from TV stations in the US.

Lachlan married Sarah O’Hare, a British-Australian model, in 1998. They have three children: Karan, Aidan, and Aerin.

Lachlan previously told Insider that marrying Sarah was the best decision of his life.

In 2005, Lachlan resigned from his role as deputy chief operating officer of News Corp amid reported tensions between company executives and his family.

He moved back to Australia, where he launched the investment firm Illyria, through which he invested in media entities like Nova Entertainment, a radio station group.

In 2014, after seeing some success and some failure after venturing out on his own, Murdoch returned to the family business as the non-executive co-chairman of both 21st Century Fox and News Corp.

In 2016, Lachlan and his brother, James, worked together to oust Fox News cofounder Roger Ailes from the company after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against Ailes.

James and Lachlan, however, have had their differences. James has reportedly been critical of the ‘alternative reality’ that Fox News has created and his brother’s role in allowing it to persist. The brothers reportedly aren’t on speaking terms.

In 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox — the entertainment wing of the Murdoch media empire— for $71.3 billion. Lachlan became the chief executive of Fox Corp, a new entity that spun out of the deal that includes Fox News.

Lachlan was reportedly not in favor of the Disney deal, and at the time of the deal, worried that it was rushed and undervalued the company’s assets.

The Disney deal also reportedly exacerbated tensions between James and Lachlan — the latter believed the deal was eroding what could end up being his future media empire. “Lachlan’s whole self-image was that he was going to be the next Rupert,” a person close to Lachlan told Vanity Fair. 

Rupert Murdoch netted $12 billion from the Disney deal and gave each of his six children $2 billion. Lachlan ultimately spent $150 million to buy the 25,000-square-foot Bel Air estate featured in The Beverly Hillbillies— the highest price in California history.

Aside from his mansion, Lachlan is known for leading a luxurious lifestyle, owning multiple estates, custom built sports cars, and multimillion dollar yachts.

In 2017, Lachlan paid $29 million for a large equestrian property in Aspen. Based on the property listing, luxury real estate listings site Mansion Global reported that the main home is a 13,500-square-foot property with six bedrooms. There is also a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guest house, a 300-bottle wine cellar, two outdoor kitchens, a gym, and an art gallery.

Over the past few years, Lachlan has been leading Fox Corp. He worked remotely from Australia for a stretch of the pandemic.

In 2020, he acquired the streaming service Tubi, doubling its monthly users in a year. Murdoch has also extended the Fox News brand into weather, lifestyle, and book imprints. 

Murdoch has also said that he’s eager to build a “blank sheet” as CEO whilst keeping his father, Rupert, as a sounding board.

Lachlan also helmed Fox Corp through tumultuous news cycles and long defended the controversial remarks of Tucker Carlson, anchor of the primetime Fox News show, ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’

But earlier this year, in a surprising turn of events, Fox News fired Carlson. The decision was jointly made by Lachlan and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, Insider’s Claire Atkinson confirmed.

Carlson was axed from Fox News less than a week after the outlet settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over false claims made about election fraud during the 2020 election.

Prior to the settlement though, texts revealed through the discovery process showed Carlson disapproved of the company’s news division and management, was skeptical of the network’s coverage of the election, and had strong critiques of Donald Trump. 

Shortly after Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Carlson texted other employees saying, “Do the executives understand how much trust and credibility we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, for real.”

Lachlan’s net worth isn’t clear, but he received $21.7 million in total compensation as Fox Corporation CEO in 2022.

Lachlan’s base salary for fiscal year 2022 was $3 million, according to Fox Corporation’s public filings. Overall, his total compensation for fiscal year 2022 was $21,748,681. In 2021, his total compensation was higher, at $27,675,399.

The Murdoch family is worth $24 billion, according to Forbes.

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