A who’s who of characters from Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire attended his 95th birthday party in New York City on Saturday, though it appears three of his children — James, Elisabeth and Prudence — never made an appearance.
Photos from outside The Grill showed a smorgasbord of News Corp and Fox executives entering the Midtown Manhattan restaurant, including Rupert Murdoch and his wife Elena Zhukova; son and Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch; News Corp CEO Robert Thomson; News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks; and New York Post editor-in-chief Keith Poole. Political characters included Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Fox Corp board member and former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
During the dinner, Rupert Murdoch commended Lachlan for “the son you are and leader you have become,” guests told Breaker Media, which snapped the photos.
A spokesperson for James Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The three children’s absence comes months after the family announced a settlement to a yearslong battle for control of the Murdoch empire. The family announced in September that new trusts were established for Lachlan Murdoch, Grace Murdoch and Chloe Murdoch, while Prudence, Elisabeth and James ceased to be beneficiaries in any trust holding shares in News Corp or Fox Corporation. Instead, the three siblings would each be paid $1.1 billion for their shares.
The settlement followed a prolonged battle in Nevada probate court after Rupert sought to amend the trust to place Lachlan in control and secure the empire’s conservative edge, a plot the two called “Project Family Harmony.” The move enraged James, Elisabeth and Prudence, who banded together to stop the attempt to carve them out of their equal shares. A Nevada probate commissioner eventually ruled against Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, arguing the patriarch worked in “bad faith” to change the trust.
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