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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Jim Waterson Media editor

Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch finalise divorce

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall attend the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar party in Beverly Hills, California.
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall married in 2016 but it is thought Hall clashed with Murdoch’s children. Photograph: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Jerry Hall is expected to receive tens of millions of pounds and a £11m Oxfordshire mansion as part of her divorce settlement with the billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

The couple have this week concluded proceedings, less than two months after they separated. As part of the settlement, it has been reported that Murdoch will give Hall Holmwood House, a sprawling Georgian country estate between Reading and Henley-on-Thames.

The 66-year-old former model is also expected to take possession of a home in the south of France, but the settlement does not give her control of any of Murdoch’s many US properties, according to the Daily Mail.

Hall’s lawyer did not respond to a request for clarity on the terms of her settlement with the 91-year-old media baron.

In a joint statement, the former couple’s representatives confirmed proceedings were over: “Jerry and Rupert Murdoch have finalised their divorce. They remain good friends and wish each other the best for the future.”

Murdoch’s decision to end his fourth marriage led to speculation about the reasons for the split. The couple married in 2016 after a rapid romance, with Murdoch celebrating the occasion by quitting Twitter and declaring himself “the luckiest AND happiest man in world”.

It appears that the relationship deteriorated during the lengthy pandemic lockdowns. Multiple sources have suggested Hall had clashed with Murdoch’s children from his previous marriages. The Daily Beast has even claimed that his heir-apparent, Lachlan Murdoch, helped arrange his father’s divorce and discussed potential PR strategies for handling the fallout.

The divorce created a briefing war involving both parties, with claims of how the split played out appearing in the press. This included Murdoch allegedly informing Hall by email that he wanted to separate, before referring all further questions to his lawyers. In response, Hall allegedly had divorce papers, which cited “irreconcilable differences”, served on Murdoch as he was at RAF Brize Norton preparing to take off on his private jet.

On Wednesday, she asked a judge in Los Angeles to dismiss the proceedings, with the settlement instead agreed out of court.

Hall’s legal documents stated she was living at a Murdoch family mansion in Los Angeles, which has the only vineyard in the city. She may need to find another US base, while making do with Holmwood House’s 11 bedrooms.

Estimates of the final cash sum Hall will receive range from £50m-£250m, a relatively small sum for one of the world’s richest men. It is understood the couple agreed a pre-nup deal setting out what she would get in the event of a separation.

Both Hall and Murdoch have previously had to deal with tricky separations. The media mogul, whose interests range from Fox News to the Times and the Sun, paid about $1.7bn (£1.4bn) to settle his 1999 divorce from second wife, Anna, the mother of three of his children. He also paid a substantial sum to divorce Wendi Deng in 2013. The couple had two children.

Hall was previously in a relationship with Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones singer. When they separated, a British court ruled that their 1990 wedding in Bali had never been legally valid under either Indonesian or UK law.

Representatives for Hall and Murdoch have been approached for comment.

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