Murdoch’s ex Wendi splits with model toyboy lover

WHEN Wendi Deng, 49, started dating 23-yearold Hungarian model Bertold Zahoran, eyebrows were raised not only at their 26-year age gap but at the 64 years between Bertold and her media mogul ex-husband, Rupert Murdoch. Now, I hear the couple have parted ways after two years together.

‘They’re not together any more, but they’re still on very good terms,’ says a friend of the model. ‘They decided it was best to cool things down because they’re both so busy and it was just too hard to make it work with conflicting schedules.’

When Deng and Ralph Lauren model Zahoran frolicked on the beach in St Barts in December 2016, they instantly became the talk of New York, where Deng lives in a £36m home she received as part of her 2013 divorce settlement from Murdoch, whom she wed in 1999.

Thereafter, they became inseparable, spending New Year’s Eve together in 2016 and attending A-list parties including one thrown by supermodel Naomi Campbell.

In December last year, the last time they were seen together, Deng took Zahoran back to St Barts for a yacht party, where they were spotted canoodling beside rock star Sir Paul McCartney and his fashion designer daughter, Stella.

The Chinese-American businesswoman, who is the mother of two of Murdoch’s children, Grace, 17, and Chloe, 15, has always enjoyed an eclectic taste in men. In 2014, a love note she had written to Tony Blair was published in Vanity Fair, in which she lusted after his ‘good body’ and ‘piercing blue eyes’.

The former prime minister, who is the godfather to her daughter, Grace, strongly denied allegations of an affair.

Keeping past lovers close comes naturally to Deng. She remains friends with Murdoch — now married to Mick Jagger’s ex, Texan bombshell Jerry Hall, 62 — whom she memorably defended in 2011 by lunging at a foam pie-throwing protester who attacked him.