Rupert Murdoch’s fiancée has global reach and riches to rival his own

Elena Zhukova, soon to be the fifth Mrs Rupert Murdoch, cannot be accused of marrying her husband for his connections. She has plenty of those of her own.

‌Mr Murdoch, 92, will wed the 67-year-old retired molecular biologist this summer at his Californian vineyard and estate, it has been announced.

‌Mr Murdoch has been married four times and engaged six. Last year, he ended his relationship with fiancée Ann Lesley Smith just two weeks after he proposed.

The media mogul met Ms Zhukova last summer through his famously protective third wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, and quickly decided he intended to marry her, a spokesman told The New York Times on Thursday.

Last August, after a whirlwind romance, Ms Zhukova and Mr Murdoch were cruising the Mediterranean in the Christina O. megayacht alongside Murdoch’s daughters with Ms Deng for what is thought to have been a family holiday.

‌The boat, which costs $767,000 a week to rent, was where Aristotle Onassis wooed Jackie Kennedy and where Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly had their wedding reception.

‌Mr Murdoch’s latest engagement comes five months after he stepped down as chairman of his media empire, News Corp, which owns hundreds of local and national outlets across the world.

‌His new fiancée has global reach and riches that rival even his own.

‌The former scientist moves in the circles of Greek shipping magnates, the exclusive international art world and the shadowy demi-monde of oligarchs with links to Vladimir Putin.

‌Ms Zhukova, who is twice divorced, moved to the United States from Moscow shortly before the Soviet Union fell in 1991.

‌The diabetes specialist, who is Jewish and a Russian-American citizen, worked in medical research at the University of California in Los Angeles.

‌Her ex-husband, Alexander Zhukov, who is believed to be a relative of Marshal Zhukov, who commanded the Red Army in the Second World War, is now a billionaire and a British citizen living in London.

‌The oil logistics and transportation magnate’s tax arrangements came under scrutiny after he was linked to a network of offshore companies in the Panama Papers leaks.

‌His daughter, Dasha, whom he shares with Elena, married Roman Abramovich, one of Russia’s richest men, in 2008.‌ Dasha was in her twenties while Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, was in his forties and recently divorced for a second time.

‌Mr Abramovich built a fortune in oil in the turbulent 1990s before moving to London and using his billions to fund Chelsea to sporting success.

‌In 2022, he was forced to sell the club after the British Government sanctioned him for having “clear connections” to Vladimir Putin after the illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

‌Over their decade-long marriage, the couple poured huge sums into amassing a fabled private collection of 300 works of modern art reported to be worth almost a billion dollars.

As part of what was described as an amicable settlement, Abramovich transferred some $92 million worth of property to Dasha, including a four-storey mansion in Manhattan.

‌While their marriage did not last, Dasha’s influence and stature in the art world has.

‌Now based in New York City, Dasha sits on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the boards of Manhattan cultural centre The Shed and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

‌She publishes a bi-annual art magazine that has boasted collaborations with artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

‌Dasha, now 42, remarried in 2020 to Stavros Niarchos III, the heir to the Greek shipping empire founded by the grandfather he is named after.

‌The grandfather, who had a bitter rivalry with Aristotle Onassis, made his fortune through supertankers in the wake of the Suez crisis.

‌He was married five times, including to the daughter of Henry Ford II, the car tycoon who was the eldest grandson of Henry Ford. He also married Aristotle Onassis’s first wife, who was his third wife’s sister and the Marchioness of Blandford.

‌Stavros Niarchos III’s father, Philip, inherited the family art collection, which includes Pablo Picasso’s self-portrait Yo, Picasso. Philip is suspected to have added a Van Gogh and works by Basquiat and Warhol to the collection.

‌His wife, Stravros’s mother Victoria Guinness, is a descendant of the banking branch of Ireland’s famous Guinness family. While Arthur Guinness became a brewer, his brother Samuel and his family made a fortune in banking.

Music magnate

‌The new relationship was confirmed when Stavros spent New Year’s Eve in 2018 with Dasha in Peru on a journey through the Amazon with the likes of music magnate David Geffen and supermodel Karlie Kloss.

‌They married in Paris and have one child.

‌With a daughter moving in such illustrious circles, it was perhaps only a matter of time before Elena would catch the eye of one of the big beasts of the international jet set.

But the love connection with Mr Murdoch is believed to have come from the unlikely source of his ex-wife Wendi Deng.

‌Dasha and Ms Deng are reported to have become “great friends” since she moved to New York, where Mr Murdoch also has property.

‌Ms Deng, now 55, was the tycoon’s third wife. They married in 1999, 17 days after Mr Murdoch’s second divorce was finalised.

‌She was 30 and he was a sprightly 68. They had two children before divorcing in 2013 after 14 years of marriage.

Hearing into phone hacking

Two years earlier, she had famously leapt up to protect Mr Murdoch when he was targeted by a custard pie-wielding protester at a parliament hearing into phone-hacking.

‌Perhaps she continues to keep an eye out for her ex-husband’s welfare.

‌The suggestion is that it was the friendship between Dasha and Ms Deng that brought about the first meeting between Ms Zhukova and Mr Murdoch.

‌“They met through Wendi and Dasha,” one source told the MailOnline.

‌The Australian newspaper tycoon had divorced his fourth wife, the former supermodel Jerry Hall in 2022, after six years of marriage.

‌Mr Murdoch is believed to have notified her of the divorce in an email which read: “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage,” he said.

“We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do … My New York lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.”

Planned summer wedding

Less than a year after breaking up with Sir Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, Mr Murdoch was engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a retired dental hygienist.

‌They were pictured boarding a private jet, she brandishing an enormous $2 million diamond ring. Just a few days later Mr Murdoch abruptly broke off the engagement before the planned summer wedding.

‌Reports suggested her “outspoken evangelical views” may have been a factor.

‌But Mr Murdoch is clearly not a man who enjoys a bachelor lifestyle, any more than he does lectures on religion.

‌He has been married four times, engaged six times and has six children

‌Will Mr Murdoch live happily ever after, or are further romantic thrills and spills ahead of him as he approaches his 100th year?

‌In Ms Zhukova, the well connected and glamorous scientist who has plenty of experience being around business titans and the super-rich, he may well have found the fifth and final Mrs Murdoch.