Succession battle: Who is likely to take over the Murdoch family fortune?

A battle over the future of Rupert Murdoch’s vast and powerful media empire will begin next week behind closed doors.

Akin to a scene straight from the hit HBO series, Succession, the Murdochs will thrash it out in a private court to decide who will take control of the $19.5 billion (£14.9 billion) family trust – and ultimately the family business.

For years questions have swirled over who will take the throne of Murdoch’s kingdom after the media mogul, now aged 93, dies.

The trial will have a significant impact on Murdoch’s holdings, including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the Sun, the Times, with a coalition of media organisations CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post demanding the case be opened to the public.

However, those hoping to tune into the dynasty’s drama will have to wait until a decision is reached after a Nevada judge rejected the petition to unseal the case, which is set to begin on Monday.

Here, ITV News takes a look at the key players in the family and what could be next for the Murdoch empire.

Who is Rupert Murdoch?

Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931, Rupert Murdoch, would enter the world of news from a young age.

His father, Keith Murdoch was political correspondent for the Sydney Sun before cutting his teeth as a war journalist during the First World War, and later becoming a proprietor of several newspapers.

Rupert worked as a rookie reporter for the Melbourne Herald under his father’s watchful eye before heading to the UK, where he took a summer job at the Birmingham Gazette, studied PPE at Oxford, and worked at the subeditor’s desk at the Daily Express.

In September 1953, aged just 22, Murdoch returned to Australia to take over the family business following the death of his father, inheriting the Sunday Mail and The News in Adelaide.

From there, he grew his media empire as he shaped the modern tabloid format to great success, buying papers in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane before turning his attention to the UK in the late 1960s, when he bought the News of the World and The Sun.

He entered the American newspaper market in the 1970s, and in the 80s and 90s amassed major holdings in other forms of media including radio, TV, video, film and record companies and book publishers.

Murdoch stepped down as chairman of News Corp in November 2023, while maintaining he would continue an “active role” in the company, and is currently “chairman emeritus” of his other company, the Fox Corporation – signalling that he is preparing to hand over the reins.

How big is the Murdoch empire?

Today, News Corp is valued at around $15 billion (£11.4 billion) and owns several media platforms in the UK, Australia and the US.

The Times and Sunday Times, the Sun, Sky News Australia, Harper Collins Publishers are just some of News Corps’ assets.

And then there’s the Fox Corporation, valued at over $17 billion (£12.9 billion), which owns the likes of Fox News, Fox Sport, loan comparison site Credible and streaming platform Tubi.

Murdoch’s personal net worth is estimated to be $20.2 billion (£15.4 billion), according to Forbes.

The Murdoch Family Trust holds key voting shares in both Fox and News Corp, giving whoever inherits it a considerable amount of power.

Key players in the fight for succession

Lachlan Murdoch

Murdoch’s eldest son was named the sole chairman of News Corp in September 2023, and is currently executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp.

This is just one sign that the 53-year-old, who has been closely aligned with his father for years, is being primed to take over the empire.

Late last year, Murdoch filed a petition to amend the irrevocable family trust, hoping to instead grant exclusive control to his eldest son and chosen successor Lachlan, according to the Times.

Citing court documents, the newspaper reported that Murdoch was concerned that interference from his other three children – who are more politically moderate than him or Lachlan – could influence the companies’ right-wing editorial stance.

In response, the other three siblings, who share four votes in the trust equally, have joined together to mount a legal challenge, arguing that their father is not acting in good faith and violating the spirit that the trust was created in, according to The Times.

James Murdoch

Lachlan’s younger brother, James, is also among the children from Rupert’s second wife, Anna.

In addition to his time as CEO at 21st Century Fox, James has held various executive positions at News Corp over the years.

However, James – known at the more politically liberal Murdoch brother – stepped down from the publisher’s board in 2020 over content appearing in the company’s newspapers.

He described his decision as being “due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions”.

James had previously criticised News Corp’s editorial decisions and said he disagreed with Fox News coverage.

Last week James, 51, added his name to a list of 88 business leaders who are supporting Democrat Kamala Harris for the US presidential election. He also backed Joe Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign and has donated to Democrat-leaning causes.

Before his time in the family business, James dropped out of Harvard University in 1995 to develop a record label, Rawkus Records, which was later bought by News Corp.

In the years following, he served as CEO of Star India, CEO of Sky (then British Sky Broadcasting) and chairman of Sky. James was embroiled in the 2011 News of the World phone hacking scandal along with his father, both of whom denied responsibility.

Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch, 56, is the eldest child of Murdoch’s second marriage.

Like her brothers, Elisabeth began working her way through the family business decades ago and was poised to take on similar responsibilities.

But she was not granted the same leadership roles as her brothers and later began her own media ventures.

In the late 1990s, Elisabeth served as managing director of Sky Networks for British Sky Broadcasting but left the company in the 2000s after being overlooked for the position of chief executive, according to news reports at the time.

A year later, she launched her own independent production company, Shine, which was acquired by News Corp in 2011.

While this initially boosted her prominence in the family business, her role was diminished when Shine later merged with Endemol in a joint venture and she stepped away from day-to-day operations.

In 2019, Elisabeth co-founder global content company Sister, and has remained active as an entrepreneur and philanthropist across the entertainment and creative industries.

Prudence Murdoch MacLeod

Unlike some of her half-siblings, Prudence has not showed the same interest in rising to the top the family business.

But as the oldest child from Rupert’s first wife, she still has the same stake in the family trust, as well as an equal say in what happens to the trust’s voting stock in both companies upon her father’s death.

Prudence didn’t completely distance herself from News Corp and has still held several roles within the company over the years.

She recently sat on the board of Times Newspapers Ltd from December 2010 to March 2022.

What will happen in court?

The Murdoch family showdown will take place in private after a Nevada judge rejected a petition by several media organisations to allow access.

Nevada offers one of the most private court settings for issues like family trust decisions, allowing parties and judges to lock the cases behind closed doors to such an extreme degree that their very existence is not even publicised on court dockets.

The existence of the case remained under wraps until The New York Times first reported on it in July. In a now-public docket, the case is only identified as “The Matter of the Doe 1 Trust, PR23-00813“.

Attorneys for the family members said in court filings that the case should remain sealed because it would otherwise reveal confidential information related to Murdoch’s business and could jeopardise his physical safety.

The judge agreed, writing: “A family trust like the one at issue in this case, even when it is a stockholder in publicly traded companies, is essentially a private legal arrangement, as the applicable sealing statues recognise.”

Beyond that, everything in this case – scheduled to begin next week with the Murdoch family likely in attendance – will remain sealed.

It is likely to be a messy affair, according to the Times’ Jim Rutenberg, who was interviewed in the 2022 CNN Original Series, The Murdochs: Empire of Influence.

“By making his family the business, and the business his family, Rupert left his family just as broken up as his company was when he sold to Disney,” Rutenberg said. “It was ripped apart by this decades-long battle for succession which, at the same time, was a zero-sum seeming battle for their father’s love.”