Revealed: Rupert Murdoch, 92, is dating retired scientist Elena Zhukova, 66 – the mother
Tycoon Rupert Murdoch, aged 92, has started dating a beautiful retired scientist – after meeting her through his third wife Wendi Deng.
The two are cruising the Mediterranean in the legendary superyacht Christina O which he has rented and are today on the coast of Corfu.
Murdoch suffered disappointment and drama this spring when his engagement to former police chaplain and vineyard owner Ann Lesley Smith was called off just two weeks after it was announced.
He and Ms Smith were pictured boarding a private jet with his fiancée wearing an enormous $2 million diamond ring only a few days before the proposed summer wedding was called off.
Reports suggested that her ‘outspoken evangelical views’ could have been a factor. It had also been revealed that Ms Smith had been in a legal dispute with her late husband’s children over his inheritance.
But, undeterred, the media mogul is now in the ‘early stages’ of a romance with Elena Zhukova, 66.
Tycoon Rupert Murdoch, 92 years old, has started dating beautiful retired scientist Elena Zhukova, 66 – after meeting her through his third wife Wendi Deng
Murdoch is now in the ‘early stages’ of a romance with Elena Zhukova, 66 (centre). She is the mother of Dasha Zhukova (right), the beautiful Russian socialite who is famous for her marriage to oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich
She is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, the beautiful Russian socialite who is famous for her marriage to Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Dasha and Murdoch’s third wife Wendi Deng are great friends in New York and it seems that this is the connection. ‘They met through Wendi and Dasha’, says a source.
Ms Zhukova is a twice-divorced molecular biologist and specialist in diabetes. She has lived in America for over three decades after leaving Russia in 1991 with her daughter.
Before retiring she worked at the medical research unit in UCLA. Sources say she spends a lot of time with her grandchildren by Dasha and Roman.
Dasha, 42, divorced Abramovich in 2019 and her settlement included a four-storey house in Manhattan. She is now married to Stavros Niarchos, the billionaire heir to the shipping dynasty.
Murdoch and Ms Zhukova senior are apparently cruising the Med on a family summer holiday.
Murdoch was spotted in Positano last month, lunching at the Da Adolfo restaurant. Reports suggest that his son Lachlan and wife Sarah joined him, sailing their new $150 million yacht Sarissa.
Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth and her husband Keith Tyson were also seen.
The Christina O launched in 1943 was converted from a frigate by the fabled Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. The boat, featured in the Oscar nominated film Triangle of Sadness last year, is where Onassis wooed Jackie Kennedy and Prince Rainer and Grace Kelly had their wedding reception on board. It is said to cost $767,000 a week to rent.
Murdoch’s daughters by Wendi Deng, Grace and Chloe, are apparently on board the Christina O also. It has 18 bedrooms.
Not spotted so far is Murdoch’s son James. A Vanity Fair article earlier this year suggested that Lachlan thought that James had been leaking episodes from the family’s life to the makers of the hit drama Succession.
Ms Zhukova is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, the beautiful Russian socialite who is famous for her marriage to Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich (pictured together)
Eldest son Lachlan has been running the businesses with Rupert Murdoch since 2014. Younger son James, 50, resigned from the News Corp board in 2020 after disagreements about editorial policy.
The other children are Prudence, 64, from his first marriage to Patricia Booker, Elisabeth, 54, from his marriage to Anna Torv and Grace, 21 and Chloe, 19 from his third marriage to media executive Wendi Deng.
Murdoch owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the US, The Sun and The Times in the UK and the book publisher Harper Collins.
His first marriage was the flight attendant Patricia Booker, they had daughter Patience. Then came a 31 year marriage to journalist Anna Torv. They had Lachlan, James and Elizabeth.
He married media executive Wendi Deng in 1999 and they had daughters Grace and Chloe.
Former fiancé Ann Lesley Smith, who also owns a vineyard, was in a dispute with the family of her late husband. They alleged ‘elder financial abuse’ and said that she had withheld their $1 million which each of his three daughters were owed. The matter was settled in 2010.