Did Wendi Deng cheat with Tony Blair? The new rumors mean that the Wendi Deng/Rupert Murdoch divorce could be the most fun since the last most expensive divorce in human history.
Murdoch split with his wife Anna of 32 years in 1998, and the $1.7 billion dollar agreement was finalized in 1999. The then 68-year-old News Corp. billionaire married 30-year-old Chinese businesswoman Wendi Deng a shocking 17 days later.
At that time, it was the most expensive divorce in the history of the entire planet.
Now, it’s almost 14 years later, and Wendi Deng and Rupert Murdoch are calling it quits. The details are still emerging. But a suspicious person might assume that Deng too has aged out of the marriage to the 82-year-old media mogul.
In a Manhattan, New York filing released by Murdoch’s lawyers on Wednesday, Murdoch said little other than the grounds for the divorce will be that the “relationship between husband and wife had broken down irretrievably.”
The divorce was announced the same day as News Corporation said that it will be split in two in the aftermath of the hacking scandal that led to the arrest of multiple Murdoch allies. According to UK’s The Guardian , that wasn’t an accident :
“[A]nnouncing the separation now, was…timed to ensure that investors were abreast of the financial implications.
Murdoch will control a 30% bloc of voting shares in the two successor companies. Deng herself is likely only to benefit in a limited — but still sizeable — way from their separation: the couple signed a prenuptial agreement and two further agreements in 2002 and 2004.”
The tabloids, including The Daily Mail , are having a little fun with Wendi Deng. According to an extensive report in the Mail , Deng is widely regarded as having slept her way to the top.
Certainly the timing of her marriage to Murdoch doesn’t suggest to anyone that Deng played fair. Now that she’s 44, it’s her turn.
The rumor mill has run wild. A representative of former United Kingdom prime minister came forward Friday to deny the rumors that Wendi Deng and Tony Blair were having an affair. The unnamed rep told a Hollywood Life reporter , “If you are asking if they are having an affair, the answer is no.”
Deng has also been linked to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
Hmm. Needless to say, Twitter is loving it.
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng are divorcing? I wonder who will get custody of Tony Blair…
— Sarah Modlock (@SarahModlock) June 13, 2013
These Wendi Deng/Tony Blair rumours are really putting me off my lunch.
— Liam Milner (@liammilner) June 14, 2013
News: Spokesman for Tony Blair denies rumours of affair with Wendi Deng. Which saves me from vomiting up my internal organs.
— Ross Lawson (@Ross_Lawson) June 14, 2013
But hard information is pretty scanty at the moment.
We’ll bring you more juicy details about the Rupert Murdoch, Wendi Deng, and Tony Blair gossip when we get it.
[Wendy Deng and Rupert Murdoch photo by Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com ]
