Lachlan takes control The Murdoch succession and a post-Rupert future

Don't let the boys sell the papers after I die," a former Murdoch executive recalls Rupert saying in more than one meeting over the years.

- Mark Sweney Michael Savage

Don't let the boys sell the papers after I die," a former Murdoch executive recalls Rupert saying in more than one meeting over the years. Murdoch built a media empire spanning Fox News and the Wall Street Journal in the US, and the Sun and Times newspapers in the UK. After his $3.3bn (£2.4bn) deal to end the long-running family feud over the future control of his business, that decision on whether to sell the papers will be down to his eldest son, Lachlan.

The 54-year-old has been heir apparent since his younger brother, James, resigned from the board of News Corp five years ago citing "disagreements" about editorial content, and has chaired the media group and Fox Corp since 2023.

After an embarrassing failed legal attempt to strip voting power from his siblings, James, Elisabeth and Prue, Lachlan will now have sole control over a new family trust, with about a third of the votes in the two listed media companies.

The structure ensures that the conservative political slant of most of the group, and in particular Fox, which continues to thrive in the Trump era, will be preserved. But it poses some big questions about corners of the empire assembled by his father over seven decades.

'Teflon Rebekah' Lachlan is said by some to not be as enamoured as his father with Robert Thomson, the 64-year-old boss of News Corp, whose friendship and business career with Rupert go back decades. But he is described by one source as "super-close" to the News UK chief, Rebekah Brooks.

It has emerged that Brooks was in attendance at the Harvard Club in New York alongside personal representatives of the two warring sides of the Murdoch family when meetings began this year about the buyout and trust change.

"Rebekah was in the room when negotiations were taking place," says another former senior executive. "She remains untouchable: Teflon Rebekah."