Who is Lachlan Murdoch, the anointed media tycoon?

Rupert Murdoch, 94, has anointed Lachlan Murdoch, his oldest son, as leader for decades to come, of a conservative media empire that includes Fox News, the The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post as well as prominent outlets in the U.K. and Australia.

The elder Murdoch engineered billions in transactions to end a succession battle among his children and bolster Lachlan’s role in charge of Fox Corp. and News Corp.

Lachlan, 54, emerged as the winner Monday in a years-long rivalry with his brother James, 52, over who would control the family’s extensive holdings. The succession adds to the already bright spotlight that’s focused on Lachlan as he came to be seen as the most likely heir to preserve the conservative identity that defines his father’s portfolio.

But observers have long noted that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch have distinct approaches.

“He’s a very different media proprietor than his father,” Paddy Manning, who wrote a biography of Lachlan, told NPR in 2022.

Noting Lachlan’s affinity for rock-climbing and tattoos when he was younger, Manning said the Murdoch heir isn’t likely to seek the “kingmaker” role in Republican political circles that his father enjoyed: “He’s kind of a little bit more hands-off.”

The question of how Murdoch’s fortune and business interests would be split among Lachlan and James, their older siblings Prudence and Elisabeth, and other relatives has played out in dramatic scenes in courtrooms and boardrooms, inspiring the HBO series Succession.

Here’s a quick bio and background on Lachlan:

Early ties to New York, and a move to Sydney

Lachlan Keith Murdoch was born on Sept. 8, 1971 — meaning the succession news emerged on his birthday. He was born in London, but within a few years, the Murdoch family moved to New York City, where Rupert began acquiring U.S. newspapers and magazines.

Lachlan had an elite education that included private schools in Manhattan, Massachusetts and Colorado, before graduating from Princeton University.

He started working at News Corp. in 1994, rising to the post of deputy chief operating officer, according to a Wall Street Journal profile. But in 2005, Lachlan left the U.S. to live in his father’s native Australia — a move seen as a form of voluntary exile.

“[Lachlan] was frustrated by what he saw as Rupert Murdoch’s unwillingness to prevent corporate machinations against him by some of his top executives, including Peter Chernin, then president of the company, and the late Roger Ailes, head of Fox News,” as NPR reported in 2021. “Rupert Murdoch wanted Lachlan to learn to fight and win his own battles.”

In 1999, Lachlan married Sarah O’Hare, a successful model who grew up in Australia and later worked in television as a host and producer. The couple have three children. As recently as 2021, the family’s main base was in Sydney, where the Murdochs’ children were attending school. He spends significant time there every year and has spoken of feeling more Australian than American; Lachlan’s father Rupert is a native Australian who built his media empire up from a single newspaper in Adelaide, on its southern coast.

Return to the U.S., and regaining momentum as heir

Roughly 10 years after leaving the U.S. for Australia, Lachlan returned to an inside track to run the family empire. His brother had been badly damaged by scandal when the family’s British tabloids were found to have hacked into mobile phone voicemails and otherwise violated people’s privacy. The Murdochs subsequently split their enterprises between the publishing and television arms.

Both sons got prime jobs, with James named the CEO at Fox and Lachlan as co-chairman. 

Lachlan’s path to the top began to clear in 2017, when a mammoth deal was announced in which the Walt Disney Co. bought much of their Hollywood properties. James then left the newly renamed Fox Corp. and later resigned from the board of directors of News Corp., the newspaper and publishing wing. 

Both brothers have been involved in high-profile controversies during their careers. James was the family’s top figure in the U.K. when the tabloid scandal broke: total settlements have exceeded $1.5 billion.

And with Lachlan as CEO, Fox Corp. has faced defamation lawsuits from election machine and software companies over Fox News’ coverage of the 2020 election. Fox agreed in 2023 to pay $787.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems; a lawsuit by Smartmatic is still awaiting a trial date. Evidence showed Lachlan feared alienating core Fox viewers — which is to say pro-Trump voters — by confronting them too directly with the facts that President Joe Biden squarely won the election.

That said, under Lachlan’s leadership, both News Corp. and Fox have enjoyed financial successes. For the recently concluded fiscal year, Fox reported revenues of $16.3 billion, a 17% rise from the previous year. And in a notoriously challenging time for print journalism, News Corp. reported revenue of $8.45 billion, a slight gain over the 2024 numbers.

Seeing Fox as “center-right”

Lachlan’s political beliefs have been the subject of speculation, although he is generally seen as being more conservative than his father.

Lachlan “describes his own politics as socially liberal but economically conservative,” Manning, the biographer, said in 2022. Manning noted that the Murdoch scion’s “biggest political donation was to the Senate Leadership Fund of Mitch McConnell.”

In 2021, Lachlan described Fox News as operating in “the center and right” in political news, opinion and analysis, speaking at an event hosted by the Morgan Stanley investment bank.

“We think that’s where America is,” he said, citing election results and adding later: “We’re going to stick to the center-right. We think that’s where our audience is.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.