HEIR FORCE ONE HANDS ON After nearly nine years of pursuing his own life in Australia, Lachlan AKELA/CORBIS; AKELA/CORBIS; M Murdoch—shown here In 2005, Lachlan Murdoch walked away from a worldwide media during News Corp.’s ARK ARK stressful summer of empire that could have been his. Now, after nearly a decade of M 2011—may finally be ready to take the reins. exile, power struggles, and near-catastrophic scandals, the firstborn Opposite: A protester sets fire to a copy of son of Rupert is on the verge of claiming the News Corp. throne. the now-defunct News FROM LEFT: © © LEFT: FROM WINNING/REUTERS ANDREW of the World, 2011. By MICHAEL WOLFF 152 | TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM avowals of love, always as though no one else were in the room. The Mur- dochs were the Murdochs to the exclusion of everyone else. They shared FATHER AND SON, not only billions of dollars, a global power base, and a sense of utmost LOCKED in A WAR OF WillS destiny, but a failure to separate in any modern family way. They lived in a bubble—continents apart but tying up their yachts together at conve- AND EGO AND PriDE, nient moments as often as many other families get together for dinner. This was the political reality lived by such people as then News HAVE SUffERED GREATLY Corp. COO Peter Chernin, Fox News head Roger Ailes, and Fox in THE STANDOff. broadcasting chief Chase Carey (now president and COO of 21st Century Fox). These professional managers had been key players in transforming News Corp. from an outsider company into a modern, blue-chip Wall Street darling. And yet here they were, having to be attentive and respectful, even subordinate, to the desires and opinions of Murdoch’s adult but wet-behind-the-ears children. Three of the four kids he had with his first two wives were handed major—and, reason might say, undeserved—roles in the business. In 2001, Murdoch had brought Lachlan—who had been given wide powers to run the company’s Australian operation after graduating IMES/REDUX or almost 10 years in 1994 from Princeton, where he studied philosophy—back to New T Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s 42-year-old son, has been the York to be his right hand and successor-in-training, effectively super- wayfarer child, searching for his place in the world and turning a cold seding all of the company’s seasoned lieutenants. EW YORK YORK EW shoulder to his father’s beseeching that he return home. But a quiet and methodical management rebellion slowly gained N Father and son, locked in a war of wills and ego and pride, have traction. Murdoch’s topmost executives, openly ridiculing Lachlan’s suffered greatly in the standoff. The son was hurt by his father’s busi- inexperience and questioning his competence—and launching a whisper- ness slight; the father was deeply pained when his son turned his back ing campaign about his partying lifestyle—triangulated Lachlan out of UHAMMAD/ on his dynastic place. Of the many, many rifts in the Murdoch family, decision-making powers. In 2005 they starkly ignored Lachlan’s wishes M this has been the epic one: The designated heir, with all the entitle- regarding a set of key decisions involving the company’s television net- ZIER ZIER ment and inevitability surrounding a first son, went stubbornly miss- works. In essence, they were daring Murdoch to overrule them. Murdoch, O Fing, creating a power vacuum in which much went awry. But give credit to a father’s persistence. At 83, playing a long game, Rupert Murdoch is close to bringing his son back to where he wants him—no matter that his son’s pride is still wounded and his feelings are tangled. Dynasties are hard to maintain, but they are not so casually destroyed. The first time I saw father and son together was in 2004, a year or so before their near-mortal breakup. I had been invited for the first of many interview sessions I would ultimately have with who would tell me later that this was one CHILDREN OF EMPIRE Rupert Murdoch. Lunch was served in his cramped office dining of his “worst decisions,” felt he had no Above: The Murdochs in 1973— Lachlan, Rupert, Elisabeth, room at News Corporation headquarters in Manhattan. Gary Gins- alternative but to side with his executive Anna, and James. Right: Rupert berg, the mogul’s ever-present PR lieutenant, was there. Murdoch team and trim Lachlan’s powers. with third wife Wendi Deng and maintained the remote gruffness that would seldom, in the years of Furious and feeling betrayed, Lachlan their two daughters, in 2005. our acquaintance, relent. quit his job as deputy COO of News Opposite: Lachlan in the New York Post newsroom in 2002, This grumpy-old-man persona seemed in peculiar contrast to Corp. on July 29, 2005, and, with his ILLIAMS/ three years before he resigned the extraordinarily good-looking doe-eyed young man who silently W pregnant wife Sarah and infant son in from the family company. appeared without introduction behind him, as though awaiting tow, decamped for Australia. orders or instructions. Curious, I thought: The ever-unfashionable ICHAEL ICHAEL MAGES I M ; ; Murdoch has gotten himself, in the fashion of all Hollywood Y moguls, a gay assistant. But then, in what seemed like a sight gag, Y ETT It is not an easy business—or G LAM the gay assistant began to stroke his boss’s shoulder, an open caress family—to leave. Not only was Lachlan’s entire financial future most cash-poor children of a billionaire. Nearly every penny they had A of obvious care and affection. Y locked into the company he was turning his back on, but, as a board was tied up in company shares controlled by the Murdoch Family It could not have been long—though in hindsight it feels like member, a role he was strategically not relinquishing, he continued Trust, which left them with no authority to sell. The Murdoch children very slow motion—before I understood that this must be Lachlan, to have large responsibilities in it. Even in his new exile, his father were hopelessly dependent on their father—just the way he liked it. ONTOUR B ONTOUR the then-32-year-old prince of the realm. C spoke to him almost every day, engaging him in the daily Murdoch But fate—and family—intervened. Lachlan was not Rupert’s What I was witnessing was the odd and inescapable reality of the tangle of family and business issues. only personal crisis. In 1999 he had divorced his wife of 32 years, EDIA/ Murdoch kingdom, the central fact of life for all of Murdoch’s associates M From the beginning Rupert waged a campaign to bring Lachlan Anna Murdoch, and married Wendi Deng, 38 years his junior, and courtiers. The cold and ruthless man lived in a world of the deepest back into the company. The father held a particular trump card: None engendering the lasting resentment of his children. But as part of the family emotions and attachments. His meetings were often interrupted of the Murdoch offspring really had any money to speak of. They may divorce settlement, a canny Anna had agreed to $100 million—not, AIRFAX AIRFAX by calls to his children, with him soliciting their advice and offering PRESSELECT/ © LEFT: FROM F have been the children of a billionaire, but they were among the world’s as California property law entitled her to, half of Murdoch’s then- 154 | TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM MARCH 2014 | 155 TEAM OF RIVALS itself at News Corp. board meetings, where both brothers held Clockwise from left: Lachlan and Sarah seats. Their face-offs raised the testosterone level of every gath- Murdoch with daughter ering—even beyond the usual levels of Rupert Murdoch’s ever- Aerin in St. Bart’s, onward quest for world dominance. The brothers openly squabbled 2011; Rupert flanked and struggled to have the last word, to the general embarrassment by Elisabeth and James, 2010; father and of other board members. firstborn son at the For Rupert, his sons, each of them his confidant and adviser, served Allen & Co. conference different purposes. Lachlan tended to reassure his father, provide sup- in Sun Valley, 2012. port, offer good counsel, and follow his father’s lead. In 1991, when News Corp. teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, it was Lachlan, still a teenager, who often accompanied his father around the world in his efforts to rescue the company. Lachlan recalled, in an interview with me, putting his father to bed on the night they signed one particular life-or-death deal. “I mean, I was only—what, 16 or 15 or something— but I remember really being worried about him.” James, meanwhile, tended to challenge his father, often publicly disagreeing with him, which, in un-Godfather-like fashion, seemed It is surely easy to understand the attraction of living in Australia to fill Rupert with pride: such a feisty son. James was always urg- and being a Murdoch with all the entitlement and powers and none of ing Rupert to be even more Rupert, more decisive and ruthless. And the drawbacks—that is, the omnipresence and meddling of the father. Rupert seemed proud of him for being willing to double down on the On the other hand, there was for Lachlan, ostensibly happy to be free of Murdoch toughness. family intrigues, the increasing tension and nettlesomeness of his younger James also understood something that his brother hadn’t. The closer brother James’s ascension to the throne that had once belonged to him.