Rupert Murdoch to marry Russian tycoon’s former mother-in-law

The daughter of the media mogul’s fiancee Elena Zhukova was married to businessman Roman Abramovich

US media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, is engaged again, this time to his girlfriend Elena Zhukova, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing the billionaire’s office.

Zhukova, 67, is a retired molecular biologist and was studying diabetes at the University of California and elsewhere. Murdoch began dating her in the summer, the report added. Zhukova was born in Moscow and moved to the US in 1991, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Murdoch’s latest fiancee is the former mother-in-law of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. Her daughter, Daria Zhukova, was married to the former owner of English football club Chelsea between 2008 and 2017.

The engagement to Zhukova is Murdoch’s sixth and comes less than a year after his last wedding to retired dental hygienist Ann Lesley Smith was called off. The nuptials are scheduled for June and Zhukova is set to become Murdoch’s fifth wife.

Among his previous four wives are model and ex-wife of Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, and Chinese-born American entrepreneur, investor and film producer Wendi Deng.

Last September, Murdoch stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, being replaced by his son Lachlan. The move ended his more than seven-decade-long career at the helm of a vast media empire. Fox News, launched by Murdoch in 1996, is now the most watched TV news channel in the US.

Murdoch’s net worth is $9.02 billion, making him the 280th richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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Abramovich, who owns stakes in Russian steel giant Evraz and nickel producer Norilsk Nickel, was the subject of sanctions by the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and Switzerland in 2022, after the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. He had all of his assets frozen and was banned from traveling to Britain, according to the British media.

Chelsea FC, which Abramovich had owned for 19 years, was sold for nearly $5 billion to a group led by American billionaire Todd Boehly. Abramovich didn’t get the proceeds of the sale. According to Bloomberg, his net worth currently stands at $8.27 billion.