‘Happiest man in world’ Rupert Murdoch marries ex-model Jerry Hall
LONDON: Rupert Murdoch wed former supermodel Jerry Hall in a low-key ceremony in central London on Friday, the fourth marriage for the media mogul.
The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp and owner of 21st Century Fox Inc, and Hall, 59, smiled happily for photographers after the ceremony at Spencer House, an 18th-century mansion built for an ancestor of Princess Diana.
“No more tweets for ten days or ever! Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world,” Murdoch wrote on Twitter.
Murdoch, dressed in a navy suit, and Hall, wearing a palegrey trench coat and flat shoes, began dating last summer after being introduced while in Australia and were first seen in public together at the Rugby Union World Cup Final in London in October.
They got engaged in January in Los Angeles where they had been attending Hollywood’s Golden Globes awards ceremony, announcing the news in a classified advert in the Times of London newspaper, one of the many titles his group owns.
On Saturday, the couple was to celebrate the marriage with a service at London’s historic St Bride’s church, famed for its wedding-cake spire.
The spiritual home of British journalism, St Bride’s was designed by Christopher Wren, who was also responsible for nearby St Paul’s Cathedral.
The church is located on Fleet Street, where Britain’s major newspapers were located from the 1700s to the 1980s. Murdoch himself hastened Fleet Street’s demise as a press hub when he moved his print works to east London.
“Within months the printing dinosaur that was Fleet Street was dead. By 1989 all the national newspapers had decamped as other proprietors followed Murdoch’s lead,” the church’s own website says.
Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the couple’s 10 children from previous relationships would be at Saturday’s service, with the six daughters acting as bridesmaids.
A native of Melbourne, Australia, Murdoch divorced his third wife, Wendi Deng, in 2013 after 14 years, saying their marriage had been irretrievably broken. Deng is a former executive at Murdoch-owned Star TV in China.
Texan model and actress Hall was in a long-term relationship with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger for more than 20 years. In proceedings in 1999, it was annulled after the British musician claimed they had never been legally married. — Reuters