Divorce is rarely a straightforward affair, but when you’re one of the most influential men in the world with a multi-billion media empire to your name, things can get even trickier. In particular, one television show that is believed to be based on the media mogul appears to be keeping him awake at night…
As HBO’s hit show Succession launches into its fourth and final series, the modern-day Shakespearean drama has had us obsessing over its watches, fashion, and potential spin-offs.
However, one man appears to be less enthusiastic but no less obsessed with the show’s return: Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul on which the show’s main character, Logan Roy, is supposed to be based on.
According to recent reports, media tycoon Murdoch – who has only just put his most recent divorce to bed – is allegedly worried that his ex-wife, Jerry Hall, may reveal secrets about his family to the creators of the hit TV show Succession. The news comes in the wake of the couple’s sudden divorce, which was detailed in a Vanity Fair article.
According to The Telegraph, sources close to the situation have revealed that it was Mr Murdoch who initiated the divorce, blindsiding Ms Hall with – wait for it – an email last June. Comprised of only 11 words, the email was swift, to the point and, some may say, pretty brutal:
“Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage.”
Rupert Murdoch’s email to Jerry Hall
He then added that “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do… My New York lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.” The couple’s divorce was finalised just two months later in August 2022, with Ms Hall explicitly being barred from giving story ideas to writers on Succession as part of the deal.
WATCH the thrilling trailer for Season 4 of Succession below.
The Vanity Fair article notes that there were disagreements between the couple regarding Mr Murdoch’s anti-abortion views and tension with his children regarding a strict masking-and-testing regime put in place by Ms Hall before they could visit their father.
However, sources say that Ms Hall herself did not view these issues as major problems in their relationship…
The couple initially met in 2013 when Ms Hall was playing Mrs Robinson in a stage play of The Graduate in Melbourne before being introduced by Murdoch’s niece and Hall’s close friend, Penny Fowler.
The old romantic then spent years wooing Ms Hall over email before they officially started dating. After six months, Mr Murdoch proposed, and they married in London in 2016.
Their honeymoon was reportedly marred by Mr Murdoch coming down with a bad case of the flu, which seemed to be an omen for a marriage that begin to disintegrate shortly thereafter and left Ms Hall feeling “devastated, mad, and humiliated.”
According to a close friend of Ms Hall, she even made an effigy of her ex-husband before tying dental floss around its neck and burning it on a grill… Yikes.
While the precise reasons for the divorce remain unclear, Mr Murdoch is reportedly concerned that Ms Hall may reveal secrets about his family to the creators of Succession.
The show is widely believed to be loosely based on the Murdoch family, and the character of Logan Roy – the uncompromising, ruthless patriarch of a powerful media family – is rumoured to be based on Mr Murdoch himself.
It remains to be seen whether Ms Hall will actually reveal any secrets to the show’s creators. However, Mr Murdoch’s alleged worries about this possibility suggest that there may be juicy details worth hiding.
Only time will tell if any such secrets are revealed to the public or the show’s creators, but if they’re worth making a dental-floss effigy over, I’d be pretty keen to hear them…