Rupert Murdoch, 92, announces engagement to girlfriend Elena Zhukova, 67, and reveals plans to marry in June
Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is engaged to retired scientist Elena Zhukova, 67, after meeting her through his third wife Wendi Deng.
The Fox patriarch started dating Zhukova this summer after his previous engagement to former police chaplain and vineyard owner Ann Lesley Smith was called off just two weeks after it was announced.
DailyMail.com revealed the couple started dating in August when the two were spotted on a family summer holiday in the Mediterranean.
She is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, a Russian socialite known for her marriage to Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Dasha and Murdoch’s third wife Wendi Deng are good friends in New York and it seems like this is the connection. “They met through Wendi and Dasha,” the source said.
Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is engaged to retired scientist Elena Zhukova, 67, after meeting her through his third wife Wendi Deng
Murdoch is engaged to retired scientist Elena Zhukova (center)
Wedding invitations have been sent out and the event will take place at Murdoch’s California estate, Moraga, in June. The New York Times.
Zhukova is a twice-divorced molecular biologist and specialist in diabetes. She has lived in America for more than thirty years after leaving Russia with her daughter in 1991.
Before retiring, she worked at the UCLA Medical Research Unit. Sources say she spends a lot of time with her grandchildren Dasha and Roman.
Dasha, 42, divorced Abramovich in 2019 and her settlement included a four-story house in Manhattan. She is now married to Stavros Niarchos, the billionaire heir to the shipping dynasty.
Murdoch, who has been married four times and has six children, announced in September that he was stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp.