Did 26-year age gap ruin Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall's marriage? Divorce shocks friends
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and model-actor Jerry Hall are reportedly divorcing after six years of marriage. Murdoch and Hall, 91 and 65 respectively, tied the knot in 2016. This was Murdoch's fourth marriage -- he was married to Wendi Deng from 1999 to 2013; Anna Maria Torv from 1967 to 1999; and Patricia Booker from 1956 to 1967.
Murdoch met Hall in Australia in 2015. Hall, who is from Texas, was a popular fashion model of the 1970s and 1980s. The two were introduced by Penny Fowler, Murdoch’s niece. Murdoch and Hall have been affectionate in public, professing their love for each other, often kissing and holding hands. In an interview before their marriage, Hall had said, "I have gone out with younger men and they’re great fun, they’ve got enthusiasm. Stamina! But I think older men are much better lovers." Hall previously dated Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger for more than 20 years. She has four children with Jagger -- Georgia May Jagger, Elizabeth Jagger, James Jagger, and Gabriel Jagger.
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What caused the split?
Now that the couple is divorcing, many believe their 26-year age gap could be the reason for their split. "For a man of 91, Rupert is remarkably fit but even he can’t hold back the years," the Daily Mail quoted one person, who knows the couple well, as saying. "He wears these soft shoes and doesn’t like to stand up for long and is obsessed with his health. He’s getting a little deaf, too. She’s that much younger and still likes going to parties, going to the beach and having fun. Being a media geisha or corporate wife doesn’t amuse her. Endlessly circling the globe on the company jet to be at his side for some corporate shindig is no longer much of an attraction to her, if it truly ever was."
"The fact is Jerry’s surprisingly lazy while Murdoch is still the workaholic he has always been. I think the gloss started coming off the romance after lockdown. To start with, when they were dating, she used to talk admiringly of how he was like a Texan, even though he is Australian. She loved that he was manly and an alpha-male type," the source added. "She had started signing off her emails “Jerry Murdoch” and I know she was complaining about losing her identity," another insider said.
Jerry Hall recently decided to restart her modeling career. She shot a campaign for Yves Saint Laurent last year, and also signed on for a celebrity edition of the Antiques Road Trip series. "It was beginning to look like Jerry was finding things to do so she wouldn’t have to spend quite so much time with Murdoch," one insider said. "Of course, she loves the money and the fancy lifestyle that comes with being Mrs Murdoch and she loves the attention — but that’s not his scene at all. Is she bored? I think possibly, yes. Don’t forget she had money after splitting from Mick so she never needed to work. The modelling seems to be a way of occupying herself."
Friends, most of who were convinced that the pair's marriage was working well, are shocked at the revelation. "I am staggered by the news. I was with them six weeks ago and there was no inkling that anything was wrong. They seemed perfectly happy and at ease," one source, who often dines with the couple, said.
Some believe Hall may have fallen victim to Murdoch’s famously decisive mindset. "There’s always a reason behind what Rupert decides, in business and in his private life," a long-time associate said. "It is either Rupert making one of these change-of-life decisions of the kind he has taken in the past, or something fundamentally has broken down between them."