Who is Wendi Deng Murdoch? - CNN.com Who is Wendi Deng Murdoch? By the CNN Wire Staff Updated 9:40 AM ET, Sat June 15, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. JUST WATCHED Murdoch splitting with younger wife 02:04 Story highlights Wendi Deng rose from humble beginnings to marry one of the world's richest men She married Rupert Murdoch in 1999 and they have two children Deng worked for Murdoch in Asia before their marriage She was born in In China and graduated with an MBA from Yale Wendi Deng, a businesswoman and mother of two is perhaps best known for the slap that protected her media mogul husband, Rupert Murdoch. In July 2011, Deng lunged at a protester who was advancing on Murdoch with a shaving cream pie during a UK parliamentary hearing on allegations of phone hacking by Murdoch's media company. The Twitterverse lit up with chatter about the incident and bloggers in her native China largely applauded her. But that one instinctive, protective swipe could not completely remove suspicions about the 44-year-old woman's marriage to 82-year-old Murdoch.

So often, the age difference, his riches and her beauty were mentioned alongside each other. Deng first made waves when she married Murdoch in 1999, shortly after he divorced his wife of more than 30 years, Anna Torv Murdoch Mann. JUST WATCHED Now Murdoch is divorcing Deng The couple have two daughters, Chloe and Grace, the youngest of his six children. The couple met at a cocktail party shortly after Deng graduated with an MBA from Yale, Murdoch told CCTV's "Dialogue" in 2011. She went to work as an intern in Hong Kong at Star Television, a satellite television service he bought in 1993. By then, Murdoch's holdings under News Corp. included the Sunday Times, The Australian, News International, the New York Post, the Times of London, 20th Century Fox and Fox Broadcasting. Deng served as his interpreter during a tour of China, he said. On CCTV, Murdoch recalled the days when he pursued Wendi and his efforts to get her to marry him. "I fell in love with her, and I asked her. She said no, and it took a long time to persuade her," he said.

Murdoch's media empire They married after he finalized his divorce from his second wife. Deng has come a long way, coming from a small town in China, the daughter of a poor factory engineer. Her marriage to Murdoch wasn't her first. She married the man who, with his then-wife, sponsored her for a student visa in the United States during the late 1980s. She eventually secured a "green card" to stay permanently in the United States, but her first marriage was short-lived. Despite her moments in the spotlight and her pre-marriage career in Murdoch's empire, not much is known about Deng. She sits on the board of advisers at the Yale School of Management, her alma mater. She is listed as a co-founder of Big Feet Productions and is also co-producer of the movie, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." Who is Wendi Murdoch? | Business | The Guardian The Observer Who is Wendi Murdoch? Last week the normally austere Wall Street Journal published an extraordinary investigation into the tangled love life and massive influence of Rupert Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng. The paper sent reporters to Beijing, Singapore and Los Angeles to produce a story that has made headlines round the world.

Here we print the original WSJ article by John Lippman, Leslie Chang and Robert Frank Saturday 4 November 2000 20.12 EST Share on Messenger Close When NewsCorp officials gathered in the Hong Kong convention centre last March to unveil their latest Chinese internet investment, a tall woman handed out a business card that read 'News Corporation/Wendi Deng Murdoch'. Deng is not a NewsCorp employee. Once a junior executive at the company's Star TV in Hong Kong, Deng, 31, quit her post before marrying NewsCorp chairman Rupert Murdoch last year. Since then, she has been portrayed - by Murdoch and the company - as a traditional housewife who attends to decorating, her husband's diet and the like. But Deng is no homebody. Though she doesn't have a formal position with her husband's media empire, she has quickly asserted her influence over NewsCorp's operations and investments in Asia, its most important growth market. Working with her stepson, James Murdoch, 27, Deng has initiated or advocated Chinese internet investments totalling between $35 million and $45m, according to a top NewsCorp executive.

With her advice, the company has also formed partnerships with cable companies in the region looking to upgrade their systems for high-speed video and internet access. Murdoch, who is 69, has never hesitated to put family members to work in his businesses. Last month, he named his eldest son, Lachlan, 29, deputy chief operating officer, in a move partly aimed at clarifying that he is his father's heir. James serves as chief executive of Star TV and has carved out Asia and the internet as his province. Even Murdoch's ex-wife, Anna Mann, whom he divorced last year, has an office and assistant at NewsCorp's New York offices, although she no longer has an active role with the company. Now, Deng is rising to a place of prominence in the family business. People within NewsCorp and outsiders involved in the Chinese internet and media industries say she identifies potential investments for her husband's company and acts as his liaison and translator in China. These people say Deng is well suited for this unusual role. The daughter of a factory director in Guangzhou, China, Deng came to the US 12 years ago with the aid of a California couple. The husband in that couple later left his wife for Deng.

She mastered English, climbed from a California college to Yale's business school and eventually landed at Star TV in Hong Kong. Having left China in obscurity as a teenager, Deng is now returning in grand style, as the wife and adviser of a global media baron. 'Wendi gives NewsCorp a Chinese face in China,' says Joseph Ravitch, co-head of the global media practice at Goldman Sachs Group, which advises NewsCorp on its Asia strategy. 'She represents not just the company but the owner, and that's critical in a country where families are very important.' Murdoch has long been fascinated by the potential of the Chinese market, and his Fox studio was a pioneer in the country. But at times, he has seemed to lack the feel for subtleties his wife is said to have. In 1993, shortly after he acquired control of Star TV, Murdoch made a still-notorious remark that satellite TV would prove 'an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere'. China immediately retaliated by banning private ownership of satellite dishes. Reception by private households of Star TV and its affiliate, Phoenix Satellite Television, remains illegal in China, though many cable operators and residential compounds defy the ban and carry the channels.

Murdoch gradually repaired relations with the Chinese. He pulled the BBC from Star TV, making the channel more palatable to the Beijing government. He sold the South China Morning Post to a pro-Beijing businessman. And at his behest, NewsCorp's HarperCollins publishing unit killed a book contract with the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten. Today, NewsCorp's officially restricted Phoenix channel is a favourite among urban Chinese households, and the company has greater access to the mainland market than any of its competitors. With the exception of an odd mention in the newspaper gossip pages or a glossy magazine photo spread, Deng has stayed out of the public eye. She accompanies Murdoch on his worldwide jaunts and stayed at his side when he received prostate cancer treatment last summer. Shortly after they were married in June 1999, Murdoch told Vanity Fair magazine that his relationship with his new wife precluded her from working for NewsCorp. Instead Deng was 'busy working on decorating the new apartment' in Manhattan. He said his bride, a graduate of the Yale School of Management, was 'a bit frustrated' by the narrow scope of her activities, adding, 'We'll just have to resolve that somehow'. The resolution has taken Deng far beyond choosing upholstery.

She has become a de facto diplomat on behalf of NewsCorp in China, a country where good relations with government officials is critical to success. Over the past year, she has met with politicians from President Jiang Zemin down. In one of her few answers to written questions, Deng said she had met the Chinese president only at large gatherings on 'formal occasions'. Deng also said she hadn't initiated any meetings with 'top level' Chinese government officials. In recent months, Deng has appeared with increasing frequency at the side of her husband and stepson James in NewsCorp business meetings. She sometimes intervenes to smooth over potentially awkward situations. In March, for example, she and the father-and-son Murdoch team met a well-connected Chinese businessman in Shanghai, in the hope of advancing NewsCorp's push into the Chinese TV market. The meeting got off to an uncomfortable start, at least partly because of the language barrier between the Murdoch men and their host, according to a participant. But Deng used her bilingual fluency to put everyone at ease,. Deng has become deeply involved in the company's analysis and negotiation of business transactions in China, according to people who have dealt extensively with NewsCorp.

Entrepreneurs trying to interest the company in their ideas often go first to Deng, according to a person close to NewsCorp She has told this person she sometimes receives more than 100 emails a day from Chinese people with business proposals. She sometimes meets entrepreneurs at NewsCorp's offices in Beijing or at one of the city's business- gathering spots, such as the St Regis bar. NewsCorp executives say that among the deals Deng has helped forge is a recent multimillion-dollar company investment in Netease.com, one of the most popular web portals that target the mainland. Earlier this year, she worked with James Murdoch to negotiate NewsCorp's investment of more than $10m in the Chinese-language internet company renren.com, according to Anthony Cheng, founder of the website. Cheng recalls that at one meeting about renren.com, Deng displayed her deep involvement when she grilled him on the difference between the site's marketing strategies in Beijing and Shanghai. She calls him with ideas from time to time on how to improve his company, Cheng adds. 'She's very keyed into all the News Corp and Star TV properties and how to better link them,' he says.

Deng initiated News Corp's investment last December in SinoBIT.com, a Beijing website that seeks to link entrepreneurs to investors online, according to Steve Sun, the site's co-founder. She did so by introducing Sun, whom she knew through mutual friends from Yale, to James Murdoch, Sun says. At the same time, people who have done business with Deng say she appears to take great pains not to overstep her unofficial role. Sun notes, for example, that she didn't attend a second meeting between him and James Murdoch, at which the terms of the investment in SinoBIT.com were finalised. 'She gave James the right to make the decision,' Sun says. Deng hasn't neglected the business of minding Murdoch, who has undergone the kind of change in appearance often associated with a man's marrying a much younger wife. Murdoch for decades preferred establishment addresses such as New York's Upper East Side and Bel Air in Los Angeles. But after remarrying, he and Deng set up home in Manhattan's trendy SoHo district, a few blocks from the apartment of Murdoch's son, Lachlan. Known for his British-style double-breasted business suits, the older Murdoch started sporting black turtlenecks.

NewsCorp executives say that sometimes he even forgoes a tie at the office, once unthinkable. He told Vanity Fair he is pumping iron with a personal trainer at 6am and downing a morning concoction of fruit and soy protein. When Deng began appearing at Murdoch's side about two years ago, NewsCorp executives wondered where she had come from and how she got there. They knew nothing about her other than that she joined Star TV as an intern in 1996, shortly after obtaining an MBA from Yale. Deng herself hasn't commented in the press about her background. Born Deng Wen Di, in the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou, her parents later moved to the southern city of Guangzhou. Deng was the family name. She later compressed her Chinese first name into 'Wendi'. Deng's father served as director of a machinery factory in Guangzhou. The family lived in a three-bedroom apartment, unusually large by Chinese standards. Wendi Deng has two sisters and one brother. A good student and champion volleyball player, Deng had enrolled in Guangzhou Medical College by the age of 16. Her ticket out of China came in 1987, when she met a Los Angeles couple, Jake and Joyce Cherry.

Cherry, then 50, was working in Guangzhou, helping the Chinese to build a factory to make freezers for food-processing plants. The Cherrys' interpreter told them of a young woman who was looking for help with her English. Joyce Cherry, then 42, says she began tutoring the teenager. In the fall of 1987, Joyce Cherry returned to Los Angeles to enrol her two children in elementary school. Cherry stayed in China to finish the factory project. Soon after Joyce Cherry was resettled in Los Angeles, she says, her husband called to say that Deng wanted to come to the US to study. He asked Joyce Cherry to help complete the paperwork and get an application ready for a local college. The Cherrys sponsored Deng's bid for a student visa and agreed to put her up until she had established herself. The 19-year-old arrived at the Cherry home in February of 1988. She shared a bedroom and bunk beds with her hosts' five-year-old daughter. All was not well, however, between the elder Cherrys. Cherry, who arrived home shortly after Deng came to California, had grown physically ill in China from a combination of overwork and poor diet.

The spouses' separation had strained the marriage, the Cherrys concur. At the same time, Joyce says she had grown increasingly suspicious about Deng's relationship with her husband. She recalls discovering photographs her husband had taken of Deng in coquettish poses in his hotel room in Guangzhou. Cherry confirms he became infatuated with the young woman. Once they were in Los Angeles, he says, Deng started making recommendations about his diet and wardrobe. When her husband and Deng didn't return home some evenings, Joyce says she concluded they were having an affair. She told Deng to leave, and Cherry left soon afterwards. He moved into a nearby apartment with Deng, who had enrolled at California State University at Northridge, a commuter college in the San Fernando Valley. The Cherrys divorced, and Cherry married Deng in February 1990. But that union didn't last. Cherry says that about four months after the wedding, he told Deng to leave because she had started spending time with a man named David Wolf. Cherry was 53 at the time. Wolf was in his mid-twenties, only a few years older than Deng. Wolf, who declined interview requests, worked in the early Nineties for an import-export company.

He spoke some Chinese and was interested in a career in China, according to someone who knew him. Cherry says he and Deng were briefly reconciled at one point, but they split up for good when it became clear she was continuing to see Wolf. 'She told me I was a father concept to her, and it would never be anything else,' Cherry recalls. 'I loved that girl.' Divorce records filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court show that the Cherry-Deng marriage lasted two years and seven months. That was seven months longer than what was required for Deng to obtain a green card, allowing her permanently to live and work in the US as a resident alien. Cherry says he and Deng actually lived together for 'four to five months, at the most'. They haven't spoken since 1996, he adds. During the early Nineties when she was married to Cherry, and for a time after that, Deng on some occasions introduced the tall, well-dressed Wolf as her husband, according to people who knew Deng.

Ken Chapman, a California State economics professor, recalls that the last time he saw his former student, in 1995, she handed him Wolf's business card and said she could be reached through her 'husband'. At 5'10" herself, Deng and Wolf made a striking couple, according to people who knew them. They shared several addresses during the Nineties and told friends that they had met in China, when Wolf had been there on business. For a time in the early Nineties, the couple worked at a suburban Los Angeles gymnastics academy operated by Li Ning, a Chinese three-times Olympics gold medallist. Deng served as a liaison between the gym's Chinese coaching staff and parents of the school-age clientele; Wolf, as the gym's general manager. Today, Wolf works as a director in the Beijing office of Burson-Marsteller, a large PR firm. In 1996, Deng graduated from Yale and began looking for a job. Through a friend, she met Bruce Churchill, who then oversaw finance and corporate development at NewsCorp's Fox TV unit in Los Angeles.

She lacked experience in the entertainment industry, but had an Ivy League business degree and was fluent in English and Mandarin, attributes of particular value to News Corp's struggling Asian satellite service, Star TV. Churchill, who was on his way to Star TV as deputy chief executive, offered Deng an internship in Hong Kong. That grew into a full-time job. Even though Deng was a relatively junior employee, she took an active role in planning Star TV's activities in Hong Kong and China, according to former NewsCorp colleagues. She helped build distribution in China for its Channel V music channel, for example, and explored interactive TV opportunities for the company's News Digital Systems arm. Rupert Murdoch frequently talks to NewsCorp's business development executives around the globe, so it isn't surprising that one day he would cross paths with Deng. In early 1998, she first appeared at his side, acting as his interpreter in Shanghai and Beijing. By that summer, the Star TV staff was buzzing about romance between the pair. After dinner meetings in Hong Kong, they were observed holding hands. In May, Murdoch had separated from his wife of 31 years, Anna. The split surprised even his closest aides, who say they hadn't seen any sign of a rupture.

Murdoch told senior Star TV executives in the autumn of 1998 that his relationship with Deng was 'serious'. Star TV's then-chairman, Gareth Chang, told Murdoch at the time that it was a bad idea for Deng to remain on staff, given her personal relationship with the parent company's chairman. That wouldn't be a problem, Murdoch replied, because Deng would be resigning and moving with him to New York. Today, Rupert and Wendi Murdoch spend time not only in SoHo, but also at their home in Bel Air and on a ranch near Carmel, California. Murdoch controls about 30 per cent of NewsCorp, a stake worth roughly $8.7 billion. He has said the stock is owned by trusts that name his three children as beneficiaries. Rupert and Anna Murdoch's divorce became final in June 1999. Negotiations over a divorce settlement dragged on for nearly 12 months, as Anna Murdoch's lawyers tried to determine the extent of NewsCorp's global assets. Financial terms of the settlement weren't made public, but the Murdochs have said they agreed on one crucial point: that their children eventually would gain control of the company.

Five months later Anna Murdoch married widower William Mann, chairman of Henry Mann Securities in New York. Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng were married on June 25, 1999, 17 days after his divorce became final. Wendi Deng: Rupert Murdoch files for divorce from third wife | Media | The Guardian Rupert Murdoch Wendi Deng: Rupert Murdoch files for divorce from third wife News Corporation boss cites irretrievable breakdown in marriage in divorce filing from woman seen as key player in media empire Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng were married in 1999. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images Dominic Rushe in New York, Josh Halliday and Lisa O'Carroll in London Friday 14 June 2013 04.52 EDT First published on Friday 14 June 2013 04.52 EDT Close This article is 3 years old News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from Wendi Deng Murdoch, the mother of his two youngest children and a woman seen as a key player in the media empire. The news, first reported by Deadline Hollywood and confirmed by a spokesman, brings to an end the media mogul's third marriage.

Murdoch, 82, met Deng in 1997 at a company party in Hong Kong. They were married two years later, less than a month after his divorce from ex-wife Anna Murdoch was finalised after 32 years of marriage. The couple are believed to have filed for joint custody of their children but there were no details of any settlement. Murdoch has cited irretrievable breakdown in marriage for more than six months as the reason for the divorce. In the divorce filing released on Wednesday, Murdoch's lawyers said that the "relationship between husband and wife had broken down irretrievably". Deng, born in China and educated at Yale, has been credited with a makeover of her mogul partner, introducing him to a younger, more tech-savvy set of friends including the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey. They married on 25 June 1999 in a twilight ceremony on board Murdoch's garland-bedecked yacht, the Morning Glory, in New York Harbor. Welsh singing star Charlotte Church (who it later emerged waived a £100,000 fee) serenaded the couple with a trio of ballads.

Deng, now 44, went on to shake up his wardrobe and join a rarefied social circle of Hollywood celebrities and chief executives. Yet, although there had been periodic rumours of marital difficulties, the announcement of the end of his third marriage caught Murdoch-watchers off guard. Wendi Murdoch had been seen as a key player in the News Corp empire, a woman who was more than a match for the dynastic plotting that dominates the media family. "I was totally surprised," said Michael Wolff, Murdoch's biographer and author of The Man Who Owns The News. "Everyone is trying to figure it out." He described Deng as the "most significant figure in the closing chapters of Rupert's life" and said she had changed his politics, his friends, his relationship with his family and even the way he dresses. "She has had an enormous impact on his life," said Wolff. Deng became internationally famous in July 2011 after leaping to block an attack by protester Jonathan May-Bowles, who threw a pie at her husband during a British parliamentary committee hearing into the News International phone-hacking scandal. "I think he genuinely loved her," said Wolff.

"Everyone is wondering what went wrong." The split came on the same day as another moment of epochal change for Murdoch. The News Corporation empire that he built from a single newspaper in Adelaide is to be split in two and Wednesday was the day that the company set out the timetable for trading to begin in the two new companies – one focused on his Fox film and television stations and a second, bearing the News Corp name, housing his newspapers, including the Sun and the Times. That split came about after Murdoch's newspaper business was shattered by the hacking scandal that rocked his empire and led to the arrest of some of his closest allies and his public humiliation. But announcing the separation now, was, it was suggested, timed to ensure that investors were abreast of the financial implications. Murdoch will control a 30% bloc of voting shares in the two successor companies. Deng herself is likely only to benefit in a limited – but still sizeable – way from their separation: the couple signed a prenuptial agreement and two further agreements in 2002 and 2004. That, though, may have reflected the fact that the media mogul had already made one of the largest known divorce settlements.

Anna Murdoch, his second wife of 32 years, received a $1.7bn divorce settlement, including $100m in cash. It was the second most costly divorce on record after that of French billionaire Alec Wildenstein and his wife Jocelyn. However, there will be financial benefits for Deng's family in the future, which could create complications for the family's long-term control of his newspapers and television stations. Each of Murdoch's six children have an equal economic interest in the family trust that controls the all-important bloc of shares – Prudence MacLeod, the only daughter from his first, short marriage to Patricia Booker, is the oldest, but the best known are Elisabeth, Lachlan and James, children from his 32-year union to Anna Murdoch. Deng and Murdoch had two daughters – Grace, 11, whose godfather is Tony Blair, and Chloe, nine, who, like Grace, was baptised on the banks of the river Jordan, at the spot where Jesus was said to have undergone the same ceremony. Also acting as godparents were two more of Wendi's friends – Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Deng had been a key player in News Corp's push into China and is chief of strategy for MySpace's China operation. The Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch owns, described her as News Corp's "de-facto diplomat" in China. But she does not sit on the board, as Anna once did. News Corp insiders said the divorce would have no impact on the business. News Corp's founder paid out £1.1bn when he divorced Anna Torv, but lawyers don't think that will be repeated. By Lisa O"Carroll Published: 14 Jun 2013 A protester lunges towards James and Rupert Murdoch as they give evidence on phone hacking to MPs Published: 19 Jul 2011 Analyzing The Murdoch Divorce: Why Wendi May Not Go Quietly Analyzing The Murdoch Divorce: Why Wendi May Not Go Quietly {{article.article.images.featured.caption}} Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Full Bio The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Loading ... This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe Wendi Deng: Not bound by normal rules.

(Photo credit: orionpozo) Hong Kong gossip has it that the first time Wendi Deng met her future husband Rupert Murdoch , she accidentally-on-purpose spilled red wine on his trousers. Recounted by the Australian journalist Eric Ellis, the story is probably apocryphal, but it still captures something important: she is the sort of person other people like to tell stories about – and the more outrageous the better. Deng is evidently not one to be bound by normal rules. And that is why we may wonder whether even Rupert Murdoch, equipped as he is with a steel-trap mind, not to mention the best prenuptial advice money can buy, may not have ventured out of his depth. Although conventional wisdom has it that the divorce will proceed smoothly and without undue strain, an analysis of the circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise. Accused of social climbing, gold-digging, and even sleeping her way to the top, Deng has now suddenly seen her name linked with everyone from boss Eric Schmidt to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (the latter surely an absolute absurdity). What seems certain is that if fortune favors the bold, few women have ever more studiedly embodied that principle. An unshakeable self-confidence seems to be key.

When, in her mid twenties, she began work in Hong Kong as a lowly gofer for an English-language television station, for instance, she immediately developed unorthodox techniques for making an impression. In ensuring that everyone knew who she was, she used to waltz in unannounced on senior executives. As recounted by Ellis , a particularly memorable episode concerned Robert Bland, a pony-tailed Australian, who as head of the station’s successful advertising sales department was probably not one to be trifled with. Having made his acquaintance the previous day, she spotted him walking down a corridor. In full view of several colleagues, she snuck up behind him and yanked his ponytail. For a split second the surprised Antipodean was beside himself with apoplexy. As he swung round, Deng chirped, “I’m Wendi! Remember me? I’m the intern. Ha, ha, ha!” Bland’s demeanor instantly morphed from thunder to sunshine. Born in Jinan in Eastern China at the height of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Deng embarked on her rocket ride to the global plutocracy when, aged just eighteen, she met an expatriate American couple Jake and Joyce Cherry.

Joyce taught Deng English and was eventually to help get her into California State University. In the meantime Deng started an affair with Jake, an engineer who had been briefly assigned to advise a Chinese manufacturing company. The Cherrys, having returned to California, took Deng into their home. Joyce eventually discovered the affair and kicked them out. Jake soon married Deng and they remained married just long enough for her to secure a green card. Within months of the wedding, however, Deng had started an affair with a younger man. After a spell at Yale she established herself in television in Hong Kong, where she met Murdoch (who owned the television company). A fundamental problem for Rupert Murdoch as he embarks on this divorce is a clash of cultures. Thinking in Western terms, he and his lawyers may imagine that what the prenuptial contract says goes. This is not how things work in the East. As decades of American interaction with East Asian businesses have consistently shown, contracts mean nothing. What matters is power. Those who have it dictate the terms. A further cultural point is also relevant. It is considered fair game in East Asia for people to pry into their spouses’ lives – and this goes even in happy marriages.

In extreme cases prying might involve audio and even video recording. Of course, spying on one’s spouse is not limited to East Asia but the difference is that in East Asia there is no obloquy: basically Murdoch may have imagined the encounter was being playing by Queensberry rules when in reality this is kick-boxing. The current face-off cannot be understood without considering the history. It seems clear that Murdoch learned the full details of Deng’s “controversial” past only after he married her, and then only from reading an account in the Wall Street Journal in 2000 (long before the paper was purchased by his News Corporation in 2007). The next key event seems to have been a television interview in 2006 in which he announced that the two daughters he had with Deng would not inherit the same voting rights in the Murdoch empire as the four children from his earlier marriages. His decision seems to have been influenced by her past – and it seems to have gone a long way towards the final breakdown of the marriage. If this inference is correct (and all the circumstantial evidence from various people who know the couple suggests it is), Deng has had many years to prepare for this moment.

She must moreover be counted a particularly determined opponent. The main issue here would appear to be equal treatment for her children in the Murdoch empire's unusual voting structure (it seems they will be treated equally in purely financial terms). If they get equal voting rights and Murdoch passes on before they reach majority, Deng would presumably vote on their behalf -- and would wield almost one-third of the entire Murdoch family's votes. Given that Murdoch's four children from his previous marriages do not always pull together, the implication is that she would end up, for a time at least, controlling one of the world's most powerful media empires. Perhaps the strangest thing about this episode is the timing. There is for a start the fact that remarkably few men in their eighties, irrespective of the state of their marriages (or their bank balances), sue for divorce. There is also the fact that Murdoch has spent the last two years in an exhausting effort to steer News Corporation through the British phone hacking affair. He has still not fully recovered from what probably counts as the most stressful episode in his entire life and has not completed the proposed restructuring of the company.

The circumstances suggest a particularly unpleasant breach – and one in which to say the least the ambitious adventuress from Jinan has hitherto stood her ground. Also on Forbes: Wendi Deng on Jake Cherry, Rupert Murdoch & Divorce | British Vogue Wendi Deng for the October 2011 issue, the magazine found Rupert Murdoch's wife on fighting form. The businesswoman and fledging film producer had just captured headlines around the world in a bravura display of spousal defence, which had seen her leap from her seat at the Leveson Inquiry to protect her husband from a ADVERTISEMENT custard pie. Her passion - and impressive left hook - left us in little doubt as to the lengths to which she was prepared to go to protect her family. In the exclusive interview, she continued to ADVERTISEMENT emphasise their united commitment, her hopes for a future away from the glare of the Leveson Inquiry and her own career plans in the film industry. The piece also revealed the extent of the couple's friendship with the Blairs: the revelation that Tony Blair is godfather to one of their daughters made headlines around the world.

This weekend Deng's relationship with the former Prime Minister became the subject of scrutiny once again, as The Mail on Sunday reported that Murdoch is no longer talking to Blair over allegations that the politician met with Deng on a number occasions without the media mogul's knowledge. We revisit the interview here to reveal a candid portrait of an ordinarily private powerhouse. It's early July in New York. The heat is so intense it is hardly possible to take a breath without feeling like you've inhaled at the open door of an oven. As Rupert Murdoch arrives in London to face his own grilling, so (to my amazement, given she has pulled out of almost all her other press commitments) his wife Wendi Deng arrives at the Hudson Hotel, fresh off her plane from Los Angeles. Dressed simply in a pair of black jeans, a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of her film, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a hoodie and a pair of flat pumps, the only clue to what is happening in her private life are the dark circles under her eyes. There is no fuss; no army of PR toughies, just Wendi and her assistant, Crystal.

Full of apologies for having kept us waiting, Wendi then has to take a 15-minute call on the terrace of the suite from which we are working. Watching her standing out there with her arms wrapped around her frame, clutching a phone to her ear, I wonder if it is her beleaguered husband she is talking to. The call complete, she returns, smiling, and settles into hair and make-up for our shoot. Although Deng must be going through a time of extraordinary stress, she does a very good job of keeping things light, chattering away about what a good time she has just had in Sun Valley at the Allen & Co annual conference where world leaders, philanthropists, and business leaders meet; the Murdochs are regular guests. Wendi loved listening to Oprah Winfrey talk, and hanging out with her stepson Lachlan, his wife Sarah and their kids. "Such fun!" she says in a loud, rat-a-tat staccato. She has a strong Chinese accent, and speaks quickly in broken sentences that are initially hard to follow.

I have been asked by Wendi's assistants not to bring up what is happening in London (a phone-hacking scandal of such magnitude it has tainted the very top echelons of parliament, the police and the newspaper industry, led to multiple resignations, and seen Murdoch's face emblazoned across front pages all over the world). So, I am shocked when Wendi announces, suddenly, &gt; matter of factly, as the make-up is swept across her face: "Well, London's shit." But that's the amazing thing about this woman, whose public persona has until now seemed aloof and enigmatic. She's unnervingly straightforward. It's the same straightforwardness I see days later at a parliamentary select committee hearing in London, when she springs across the floor (and delivers a mean blow) in defence of her husband. Standing at just over 5ft 9in, and with the kind of looks usually reserved for a Bond villainess, 42-year-old Wendi is the 80-year-old media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's third wife.

He married her in 1999 on board his yacht The Morning Glory, 17 days after his divorce from Anna, the mother of Lachlan, James and Elisabeth, and after 31 years of marriage. The divorce was reported to have been surprising and deeply hurtful: at the time, Anna, who has since remarried, told Australian Women's Weekly: "Rupert's affair with Wendi Deng - it's not an original plot - was the end of the marriage. I thought we had a wonderful happy marriage. Obviously we didn't." Two children followed soon thereafter, Grace (now nine and a half) and Chloe (now eight), both of whom will inherit, at 30, the same economic interest in their father's trust as his older children. Given that Wendi is believed to be the guardian of her children's interests until they reach that maturity, she is possibly one of the most powerful players in the family's fortune. No wonder the world has speculated ever since as to just who this formidable former employee must be. I first met Wendi earlier this year at the New York home of actor Hugh Jackman (who makes a cameo appearance in her film) and his wife Deborra-Lee.

Wendi had popped in for a quick bite before going on to L'Wren Scott's fashion show. Anticipating a tough, possibly cold and unfriendly sort, I found instead a warm, affectionate woman who bore no trace of froideur. I was also struck by how knowingly fashionable she was: in that season's It-skirt from Prada, black short fitted jumper and knee-high flat black boots. We gossiped about exercise, facials and fashion; though direct in her speech, she was also inarguably charming. Back then, she was excited about the forthcoming Oscars. I asked her what she was wearing: "Anna is helping me find a dress," she told me briskly, of US Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Wendi, I soon came to understand, always starts at the top. Her conversation was peppered with famous names: her closest friends include Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Tony Blair (all of whom are godparents to the couple's children, all of whom attended the christening garbed in white, as the guests of Queen Rania, on the banks of the river Jordan), and "the Google guys", Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Yet her habit didn't seem snobby or name-dropping - rather as though she simply assumed, because she knew them, so might you. She was excited also about the recent launch of Art.sy, a digital art project she was backing with her friend Dasha Zhukova, and the debut of her first project as a film producer, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a glossy movie based on the bestselling pan-historical novel by Lisa See, to whom she was introduced by her former neighbour Amy Tan (of The Joy Luck Club). But that was then. I worry about him being alone When we meet again, a few days after the shoot, at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, she looks tired. "I haven't slept properly for weeks," she sighs, giving me a warm hug before sitting down. (Wendi is very tactile, often touching or holding your arm or hand to make a point in conversation.) She's immaculate, again, in another Prada pencil skirt and a pale blue shirt by J Mary (the same shirt, I realise later, she wore to the select committee hearing) and Lanvin flat sandals. Her hair, as always, is loose. She's worried about not being in London, for her husband.

"Of course, as Rupert's wife, I think it's unfair on him to be going through this," she says of the media storm. "I worry about him being alone. He has no PR people advising him. But he is with his friend who he has worked with for over 50 years - so he has support." I wonder if the friend is Les Hinton, chief executive officer of the Dow Jones and Murdoch's most trusted lieutenant - who will himself resign within hours of our conversation - but Wendi doesn't elaborate. I get a tangible sense of a family under siege, and that this is totally unprecedented. "He tells me not to come," she continues. "But I'm flying to London for the hearing. I want to be with him." PA Deng with Murdoch Most of all, Wendi worries about the children. "It's Chloe's eighth birthday and we will miss it [the family had been planning a pool party at their ranch in Carmel]. For us - and the children - that is very hard," she says, before adding, tellingly, "although emotional sadness will help them build character and make them stronger." Are the children aware of what is happening in London? "Oh yes. We don't talk to them like babies.

They know all about the phone hacking. But, to be honest, they are children and would rather talk about the camping trip they have just come back from with cowboys." I ask whether Matthew Freud (the PR guru and Murdoch's son-in-law) is advising Rupert. "No, no," she responds quickly. "Too close." Our children know all about the phone hacking Despite the maelstrom of events enveloping her husband and the "emotional sadness" of being away from her family, Wendi waves her concerns aside to talk about the film she has made with her partner Florence Sloan - her first with their company, Bigfoot Productions. Set in China, directed by Wayne Wang, and co-starring Hugh Jackman, Lotus Flower explores the nature of friendship between women and sets its action between a small village in China in the nineteenth century and present-day Shanghai. Specifically, it centres on the subject of laotong, the secret language used by women in letters which enabled them to talk about their true feelings, their marriages and their experiences outside the rigid traditions that bound them in the homes. It is perhaps little wonder that Wendi was moved by the tale of women's endurance.

"When I read this book four years ago, I somehow felt there was a connection," she explains. "My grandmother died in childbirth and my great-aunt lived with us. She had bound feet. She never knew how to read or write. And this story is very much at the heart of Lotus Flower." Born on December 8 1968, Wendi's own childhood was full of its own rigorous discipline. "I grew up in a little funny town called Xuzhou, in the countryside, very poor. We didn't have hot water. We were four children: three girls and a boy." Wendi is the youngest of the daughters and her brother is the youngest child. She adds: "These days, in the countryside, it is still more important to have boys. But not in the city: there they have realised how smart women can be!" Rex Features Deng protecting her husband from being hit in the face with a custard pie during the Leveson Inquiry Deng's parents were engineers, and her two older sisters trained also in the family trade. "My parents pushed us very hard to work, both in the home doing chores and cooking, and at school. They were very &gt; strict.

Much stricter than Tiger Mom," she laughs, referring to her friend Amy Chua's bestselling parenting memoir. "When we grew up, you did what your parents told you. Mine wanted me to go to medical school. It was not my choice. It was 1985, and I did what I was told." She stops. "They were thinking practically," she continues. "If I went to medical school, I could look after them when they were old." In many ways she has: her parents now live in the United States, her brothers and sisters move between America and Shanghai. "I wasn't necessarily the brightest in my family," she continues. "I think my older sister was probably more clever, but I worked very hard." She excelled in her class. "My parents were so tough. In the summer when everyone else was on vacation I had to study the whole textbook for next year so I would be ahead in class." For Wendi, 99 per cent was not an option. "It had to be 120 per cent." She expects similar of her own children. "Wendi and Rupert are incredibly family orientated," says Hugh Jackman, Grace's godfather.

("She was his translator in China," says Wendi.) "She is quite a strict mother, and it is very important to her that the girls don't take anything for granted. And she wants them to have a spiritual life, which in many ways is surprising - as that was not at all a part of her childhood. They go to church and Sunday school regularly, and when we go over to the house at the weekends she often makes yum cha [dumplings] with the girls for us, the way she was taught to make them as a child." Then again, he adds, she's "always been very inquisitive about show-business. She's amazing at the details. Often when she and Rupert get talking about that stuff, I am left in the dark, but she loves it. They can talk about it forever." Wayne Wang also attests to her extraordinary tenacity. When one of their two lead actresses, Zhang Ziyi, pulled out at the last minute, "Wendi hit the phones. For her, 'no' is not an option. She had to find a big-name Chinese actress who could speak English and have an international appeal. These are not easy to find at the best of times, but we had no time.

Wendi flew to Hong Kong to meet Bingbing Li and closed the deal. She really gets things done and that is not at all easy in China," he adds. "Wendi used all her contacts, pulling in favours for us everywhere. She was closely involved in everything, especially the modern costumes. Wendi would come on set and say: 'Why is the actress wearing those shoes? She should be wearing Louboutins.' She understood the importance of people recognising those red soles in context of the character, what kind of woman she was." Wendi's contacts book is extensive. And she's an extremely confident networker, a fact I bear witness to at a screening of the film, in New York, the night before our meeting. She wore a pale blue beaded dress by her friend Peter Dundas, for Pucci; the event was hosted by her friends Kidman, Deborra-Lee Jackman, Diane von Furstenberg and Ivanka Trump; and there was a dinner afterwards at Von Furstenberg's home, catered by Mr Chow. Even within this starry milieu, Wendi exuded a particular charisma.

I was reminded of a recent quote by Michael Wolff, author of the famed Murdoch biography The Man Who Owns the News, and one of Murdoch's staunchest critics: "She has instant stature, because she's a Chinese woman who behaves like an American woman. A Chinese woman who isn't the least bit indirect. Every man in the office has a Wendi crush or fixation." Despite being the focus of the event, Wendi didn't stay late. "Gotta get home," she whispered to me at the door. "My feet are killing me." Nicole Kidman and Wendi have been friends for years. "Wendi is all about friendship between women," she explains from her home in Tennessee. The two women bonded soon after Wendi and Murdoch met. "I think we were both lonely and kind of isolated - Wendi in this big new powerful world, and it was a time in my life where I was very exposed. We just clicked. We understood each other. I sort of had a feeling for the psychology of Wendi. We both came from strict backgrounds. I was brought up in the church and believe that it is important to have a moral compass wherever you find it.

Wendi also has found it through church and Sunday school." I had never even been in a supermarket before coming to America She hasn't always negotiated the moral compass quite so laudably. While a strict moral upbringing surely propelled Wendi through medical school, her subsequent decision to abandon it halfway through and head to America illustrates determination of quite another kind. "At the time I left medical school I was living in Guangzhou, a big city near Hong Kong, and I started to meet people who had relatives in Hong Kong and America," she says. "And in China, at that time, the idea of getting out and going to America was the stuff of dreams." It was one of these meetings that introduced her to an American family called the Cherrys - Jake, his wife Joyce, and their young children. Joyce taught her English and they soon became close, so much so that when Joyce and the children returned to the USA, Jake suggested they sponsor the teenaged Wendi to study at California State University. Wendi arrived in Los Angeles and moved in with the family. Not long after, Joyce discovered her former pupil was having an affair with her husband. The Cherrys divorced, and Wendi and Jake married.

The marriage lasted four months, and Wendi got a Green Card. When I ask Deng to confirm that this story is accurate, she replies only: "Yep." Maybe if she hadn't ended up being married to one of the most famous men in the world this story would not be of such lurid interest. A young girl who didn't have a fridge or a television in her home until she was 15 must certainly have been quite impressionable. She certainly wasn't afraid of the effort it would require to make a life for herself in America. "I was willing to do anything," she explains. "I studied and worked in a Chinese restaurant to support myself. People would say to me 'Oh you must be missing home', but I had grown up hard. I was so happy to be there. I had never even been in a supermarket before coming to America. At home, my parents wouldn't let me open the refrigerator, because they worried I'd damage the door by opening it too many times." I was the first Chinese woman at Star TV - usually the women pushed the tea trolley Wendi worked extremely hard, and did extremely well, eventually earning her MBA from Yale Business School.

And, after a stint at the Murdoch-owned Fox TV in 1996, she won a position at Star TV, Murdoch's Asian satellite service, in Hong Kong. So many stories circulate as to how Deng and her boss met, she sets the record straight. "After I got my MBA I worked as a business development manager with two other MBAs. We went through a very protracted and intensive interview process and they hired me and one other male graduate. And, in 1997, we went to work together at Star. This Jewish boy and me, a Chinese woman. I was the first Chinese woman there to be a manager - usually the women pushed the tea trolley." And Rupert? "In 1998, Rupert was in a meeting and he was asking what was going on in China and they brought me into the meeting and that was how we met." They got married in June 1999. It's too easy to write Wendi's marriage off as one of ruthless ambition. But, to my mind, the marriage seems much more a meeting of minds - a shared ambition and fascination with the business of making money. "Of course, I realise how extraordinary my life is," she says.

"I think I am very defined by how hard I had to work for my education, and I apply that discipline throughout my life. As for what other people think of me, I could worry about that every day, but I choose not to." She is bolstered by her husband's support. "Rupert thinks I have a good head on my shoulders. Whatever I do he is very involved in." Deborra-Lee Jackman agrees. "Rupert loves that Wendi wants to use her brains. It makes him proud to see her achieve her goals." Patrick Demarchelier "She's so not the type to be sitting by a pool," says her friend, Daily Beast and Newsweek editor Tina Brown, who co-hosted a dinner with Wendi and Dasha Zhukova at last year's Art Basel to launch their art site. "She was fabulous to work with, a real pro, terrific at bringing people together and very pro-active. She is really making her own mark for herself, producing across the board. She makes things happen and has fun." "She's much more relaxed than you would think," agrees Kidman. The two women recently attended a wrap party for one of Kidman's films.

"I told her not to bother coming, it was going to be raucous. But she wanted to - and she danced all night!" ADVERTISEMENT Wendi certainly doesn't let her position stop her from trying to keep the normal things important in her life. Her girls are encouraged to work hard. "Rupert did such a good job with his big children," she says. "I really make sure that my girls understand the importance of education. I don't want them to be spoilt and only know private-school kids. I want them to behave well by example. I believe if you are nice to people, children will follow. Likewise, if you are rude to people, children will follow." She's also well aware of just how privileged she is. But she seems to have found her own identity as a working mother, wife and friend. She and Sloan are keen to develop more movies that would work both in China and internationally, and there is much talk, currently, of her trying to secure the rights to Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. But lest anyone forgets, the family comes first.

As Hugh Jackman observes: "If there was one thing that would stop her from being a producer, it would be her children." Right now, she is thinking about her forthcoming trip to London. "There are so many photographers outside our house," she says, absent-mindedly, "what do you think I should wear?" I suggest a pair of jeans and her T-shirt with the film's name on the front. "Yes," she laughs. "Good idea." How will the family spend their summer? "Usually, we are on the boats and we meet up with Rupert's kids on their boats." Rather like the soap opera Dallas, I imagine a floating Southfork, with Rupert as JR, all the other Ewings bobbing around him and, if the rumours are to be believed, family dynamics that would rival even its most fabulous storylines. "But all this we don't know," she finishes. "We have to see what happens in London." Four days later I watch Wendi Deng sitting behind her husband in front of the parliamentary select committee, a situation she must never have imagined.

Dressed, I am sure, with as much attention to detail as she gave to her actresses on the film: not too fashion, not too showy, almost no jewellery, yet her jacket - that pink - is the only colour in the room. I observe her leaning forward, implacable, focusing intently on every word said. I see her concern for her husband, her hand reaching out to support him and signalling to him gently when he bangs too hard on the table in front of the microphones. I find myself moved by her obvious concern for him. Then, as the drama unfolds, Rupert is attacked - by, it emerges, a man with a foam pie. I see Wendi leap forward and challenge his assailant; all instinct, all power. I send her a text congratulating her. Moments later I get a reply: "XOXOXOX". If Rupert Murdoch is looking for someone to help re-brand the image of his company, he need look no further than his wife.

This article was first published in the October 2011 issue of Vogue magazine The Vogue Interview: Karl Lagerfeld By Vogue The Vogue Interview: Lara Stone By Violet Henderson The Vogue Interview: Alicia Vikander By Tom Lamont Wendi, Rupert Murdoch True to Character, Biographer Says - ABC News ABC News Wendi, Rupert Murdoch True to Character, Biographer Says By LAURA RIPARBELLI WATCH Wife Lunges to Protect Murdoch 0 Shares Email Rupert and Wendi Murdoch were true to character Tuesday when she went from the statuesque, socialite wife of a media mogul to a protective spouse with a steady right hook, according to Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff. "I thought, 'That's our Rupert and that's our Wendi,'" Wolff told ABC News of his reaction to the couple's behavior during the otherwise solemn parliamentary hearing. "She's kind of fearless, actually," he said of Wendi Deng Murdoch. In an unexpected twist of events at the hearing Tuesday in which Murdoch and son James were peppered with questions about allegations of phone hacking, Murdoch's wife was the first to jump to her husband's side as an attacker threw what looked like a shaving-cream pie in the News Corp. chairman and CEO's face.

Wearing a pink suit jacket, video footage shows Deng, 42 and married to the 80-year-old Murdoch for 12 years, jump up and lunge after the attacker faster than anyone, taking an open-handed swing at the man who was arrested shortly thereafter. "That doesn't surprise me. She's fairly feisty," said Eric Ellis, who wrote a detailed profile on Deng for the Monthly in June 2007. "I think it was an instinctive reaction that anyone would have … looking after her partner." But Deng is much more than a protective trophy wife and mother to two of Murdoch's children . She is a Yale University business school graduate and former News Corp. employee who also worked as the head of MySpace China, purchased by Murdoch in 2005. "She's in there living the life," biographer Wolff said. "This is a woman who came to the U.S. when she was 18 from China, speaking no English, with her first job in a Chinese restaurant. "She's done it all," he said.

"She's had no pretense that she's taking it and grabbing it for herself, and the thing you feel is kind of good for her." Deng's background is as feisty as the right hook and quick reflexes she displayed to protect her husband as he faced tense questioning by a British parliamentary panel, and now sees his media empire rollicked by scandal and arrests. Born in the northeastern province of Shandong in China, Deng traveled to California in 1988 at the age of 18 after working as an interpreter in China for a Los Angeles couple, Jake and Joyce Cherry. She stayed in the United States, under a visa sponsored by the Cherrys, to work and to study. Deng eventually became romantically involved with Jake Cherry and, when the Cherry's marriage ended, Deng and Jake married, only to divorce less than three years later. "The husband was much more in love with Wendi than Wendi was with the husband," Steve Fishman, contributing editor for New York Magazine told ABC News. Deng's love affair with Murdoch began under a cloud of scandal as well. The couple met in 1989, when Deng was living in Hong Kong and working for Murdoch's Star TV.

They were married in June of 1999, 17 days after his divorce from his second wife of 31 years, Anna Murdoch, was finalized. "She was interested in his business and he's flattered and says he wants to get to know her," Fishman said of how the couple's relationship grew. The couple have two young daughters together, Grace and Chloe. Murdoch has four grown children, Prudence from his first marriage and Lachlan, James and Elisabeth from his second marriage to Anna. Loyal Wife, Family Tensions "The other thing is nobody really likes Wendi," Wolff said, alluding to family tensions that arose when Deng reportedly battled Murdoch's adult children to secure a voting position for her children in the family trust, giving them access to a stake of News Corp., worth billions of dollars. "Despite all this, she has persevered ...," Wolff said. "The feeling you come away with is this is a person with incredible faith and vitality." As Murdoch's wife, Deng became a red-carpet regular in the United States herself, counting many of the rich and famous among her friends.

Just as the scandal embroiling her husband and her family's fortunes exploded this weekend, Deng was in New York's glitzy Hamptons, attending a screening of the film she produced, the just-released "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," a story set in 19th century China about the tough cultural norms imposed on women. She reportedly flew to London Tuesday to be there for her husband's hearing. "Their relationship has changed over the years, she provided him company and comfort in the early days," the Monthly's Ellis said. "[She's] probably become closer to him and more of an advisor more recently." The Associated Press contributed to this story. 0 Shares Wendi Deng Murdoch: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com Get Heavy's Top 5 News Stories Every Day We will never share your email address.

Wendi Deng: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Published 5:50 pm EST, June 13, 2013 Updated 1:41 pm EST, April 17, 2015 Comment By Danny Vega Share Tweet Share Email Follow Rupert Murdoch, 82, has filed for divorce from his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng, today at New York State Supreme Court, reports Deadline.com . Murdoch is one of the wealthiest people in the world, Forbes lists his wealth at $8.2 billion , his wealth is generated through his media holdings, his News Corporation media conglomerate owns 20th Century Fox, Fox News, and the New York Post, but who is Wendi Deng? Here’s 5 Fast Facts you need to know… 1. Deng Ran Myspace China for $300k a Year Deng reached some level of notoriety after Rupert’s company bought MySpace for a hefty $580 million, and then promptly ran it into the ground. Despite this, Deng still earned a pretty penny for providing “strategic advice” to MySpace in China.

Critics blasted the move, which was reported in Newscorps 2010 Annual Report, as being nepotistic, since it appeared her only real qualification for the job was being from China. Here’s a quote from the report: “It appears that Deng’s main credential for the job is that she’s from China. Unless Rupert figured her stint as a junior executive at Hong Kong’s Star TV – before she married Murdoch way back in 1999, when no one had ever heard of Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, never mind Myspace – qualified her to advise a social networking site. Murdoch ended up selling MySpace for 6% of his purchasing price in July of 2011 for a paltry $35M. 2. Murdoch and Deng’s Marriage Lasted 14 Years Actress Nicole Kidman, Wendy Deng and Newscorp Chairman Rupert Murdoch watch Lindsay Davenport take on Elena Dementieva of Russia during the quarterfinals of the US Open at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park on September 7, 2005 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.

(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) Murdoch and Deng met in Hong Kong in 1997 at a party, they were married in 1999, 17 days after his divorce from Anna. They were married in New York harbor aboard Murdoch’s yacht, Morning Glory. 82 people attended the service, with the NYPD providing security. At the time Murdoch was 68 and Deng was 32. The couple have two daughters. Click here to read more 3. Deng Made World Headlines When She Defended Her Husband From a Pie In July 2011, Deng leaped to the defense of her husband when Jonathan Bowles threw a shaving foam pie at Murdoch during the phone hacking scandal. 4. Deng is a Successful Business Woman Wendi Murdoch attends a dinner and auction hosted by CHANEL to benefit The Henry Street Settlement at Soho Beach House on December 5, 2012 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Soho Beach House) Deng is a successful businesswoman, she is the CEO of the film company Big Feet Productions, she holds a MBA from Yale in business.

Just prior to her marriage to Murdoch, Deng stepped down as vice-president of Murdoch’s Hong Kong-based English-language cable network Star Television. Click here to read more 5. Deng is 44. Rupert is 88. Really, not too much is known about Deng, but it is certain that she is literally half the age of Murdoch. Maybe he decided to start dating women within 3 decades of his age? Probably not. In any case, Deng will be left in good shape regardless of how the alimony or divorce settlement pans out. She still serves on the board of advisers at the Yale School of Management, where she went to school, so she has plenty of resources for the post-Murdoch reality she’ll be living in. Danny Vega Wendi Deng Wendi Deng Explosive New Allegations Surface About Rupert Murdoch's Marriage The Huffington Post | Jack Mirkinson | Posted 02.05.2014 | Media Rupert Murdoch Divorce Finalized Reuters | Posted 01.25.2014 | Media Things Are Getting Nasty In Rupert Murdoch Divorce The Huffington Post | Jack Mirkinson | Posted 09.29.2013 | Media Good Luck!

Reuters | Posted 08.15.2013 | Media WHAT HAPPENED? The Huffington Post | Jack Mirkinson | Posted 06.14.2013 | Media Rupert Murdoch Files For Divorce The Huffington Post | Katherine Fung | Posted 08.13.2013 | Media The Meaning of Lao Tong Wendi Deng Murdoch | Posted 01.16.2012 | Home Murdoch Scandal: New Arrest Heralds U.S. Peril For Murdoch Martin Lewis | Posted 10.18.2011 | Media Read More: News Corp, News of the World, George Harrison, Rupert Murdoch, Semi-House-Trained Polecats, Wendi Deng, Phone Hacking Scandal, James Desborough, Sir George Martin, Media News What makes James Desborough's arrest especially nerve-wracking for News Corp. is the fact that shortly after the activities that he was arrested for took place in England, he moved to Los Angeles to become U.S. Editor for that same Murdoch newspaper.

Wendi Deng and a Western Fear of China Youyoung Lee | Posted 09.20.2011 | Celebrity Clive Palmer claims Murdoch is divorcing Wendi Deng because she is 'Chinese spy' | Daily Mail Online comments An eccentric Australian businessman who is contesting this weekend’s general election claimed today that Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng is a Chinese spy ‘and that’s why Rupert got rid of her.’ Multi-millionaire Clive Palmer, 59, renowned for his plans to construct a replica of the Titanic in conjunction with a Chinese company and for his dreams of creating an animated Jurassic Park in Queensland, also said today that he was planning to sue Mr Murdoch. He was furious about an article in a Murdoch newspaper, The Australian, which questioned his wealth and whether he was a university professor and a mining magnate, as he claims.

Claims: Clive Palmer, an eccentric Australian businessman who is contesting this weekend's general election claimed today that Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng is a Chinese spy 'and that's why Rupert got rid of her' In his attack on Mr Murdoch he did not exclude the media magnate’s former wife, Miss Deng - who will be remembered for her defence of her husband when she prevented a protester from smashing a pie into his face during the hacking inquiry before the House of Commons Select Committee in July 2011. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share ‘You know Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng is a Chinese spy and that’s been right across the world,’ he claimed during an interview on the Channel Nine tv network. ‘She’s been spying on Rupert for years, giving money back to Chinese intelligence. Outspoken: Multi-millionaire Clive Palmer, 5 also said today that he was planning to sue Mr Murdoch Standing by her man: Wendi Deng (wearing pink jacket) is famous for punching the man who threw a pie at her husband's face during a parliamentary committee hearing ‘She was trained in southern China. I’m telling you the truth.

‘Wendi Deng is a Chinese spy and that’s why Rupert got rid of her.’ Along with his claims, Mr Palmer, who insists his Palmer United Party will win ‘a lot of Senate seats and a lot of House of Representative seats’ in the upcoming election, said he was going ahead with his determination to sue Mr Murdoch for the article attacking his credibility. Outlandish: Mr Palmer is renowned for his plans to construct a replica of the Titantic in conjunction with a Chinese company and for his dreams of creating an animated Jurassic Park in Queensland The Australian newspaper said that ‘contrary to the flim-flam and spin, Clive Frederick Palmer is not a professor, not an adviser to the G20, not a mining magnate, not a legal guru and not an advocate for freedom of speech. He’s probably not a billionaire.’ He accused Australian-born Mr Murdoch, who is now a US citizen, of ordering his reporters what to write and said the media magnate needed to be brought to account. ‘Murdoch will be sued by me today and will be brought to Australia to answer these questions in the Supreme Court,’ he told the Seven Network.

‘It’s time this fellow was brought to account, this foreigner who tries to dictate what we do.’

Question: Who is the famous businessman husband of Wendy Deng?
Answer: Rupert Murdoch