Ms Anna Murdoch, the wife of the world's most powerful media mogul, yesterday filed for divorce in what is likely to be the costliest marriage break-up of all time.
A Catholic who was always thought unlikely to seek a divorce, the mother-of-three has chosen to file her suit in California, where she could get half Mr Rupert Murdoch's share in the $30 billion News Corporation empire.
The petition was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Mrs Murdoch's lawyer, Mr Daniel Jaffe, a high-powered Beverly Hills attorney. The wording on the petition hinted at a long legal ordeal. It stated that Ms Anna Murdoch does not know the exact extent of her husband's multibillion dollar fortune, but intends to find out.
Mrs Murdoch stands to get half of all the Murdoch possessions. Apart from a luxury yacht, fleet of cars and one third of News Corp, the couple own several homes around the world. They include a $6.5 million Penthouse apartment in London's St James's and an $8 million house on the Upper East Side in New York.
There is also a sprawling $25 million villa in Beverly Hills, complete with 10-car garage, a harbour-view penthouse in Sydney worth $8 million, a mansion in Melbourne worth another $8 million, a vast ranch and a $32 million home in Aspen, Colorado, complete with trout stream running through the living room.
Mrs Murdoch, a 53-year old novelist, has been a main board director of her husband's media empire since 1990 and was his sheet anchor in moments of crisis.
Last night stock market experts around the world warned that the collapse of the Murdoch marriage could have perilous ramifications for the global newspaper and TV business. Uncertainty about the ultimate ownership of the Murdoch stake, they said, could be particularly damaging as Mr Murdoch recently announced plans to spin off his American film and television interests.
They include 20th Century Fox, producers of Titanic, Independence Day and Star Wars, and 22 TV companies whose output includes The Simpsons, Ally McBeal and The X-Files. He plans to sell 20 per cent of these businesses in a deal likely to value them at $15 billion.
In addition he owns cable TV networks in the US, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the Star TV satellite network in Asia, the (London) Times, Sunday Times, News of the World and The Sun as well as 40 per cent of BSkyB. He still has extensive newspaper interests in Australia and the US.
Although there are outside shareholders in News Corp, Mr Murdoch has made sure that his family retains control. News of the divorce led to a 22 cent fall in the value of the shares yesterday in Sydney. This represented a fall of 1.7 per cent, more than twice the percentage drop in Sydney's benchmark index.
Mrs Murdoch met her husband-to-be when she was aged 17 and a trainee gossip column reporter on one of his Sydney papers.