Remembering Anna De Peyster: Rupert Murdoch’s Second Wife and Former News Corp Board Member Passes Away at 81
Anna de Peyster, the former wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and mother of his three children, has passed away at the age of 81. Her death, which occurred in Palm Beach, Florida, followed a lengthy illness and was initially reported by the Murdoch-owned New York Post before being confirmed by other outlets.
Born Anna Torv in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1944, de Peyster moved to Australia with her family at the age of nine. She began her career as a reporter at a Sydney newspaper, where she met Rupert Murdoch, who was the publisher at the time. The couple wed in 1967, shortly after Murdoch’s divorce from his first wife, Patricia Booker, and remained married for 31 years.
De Peyster’s three children—James, Elisabeth, and Lachlan—have been central figures in a high-profile succession narrative within the media empire forged by Murdoch. This story reached a pivotal point in 2025, when a settlement was reached that saw James and Elisabeth distance themselves from the family’s business. Meanwhile, Lachlan Murdoch, who has served as CEO of Fox Corp. since 2019, has been reaffirmed as the successor to Rupert Murdoch, now 94 years old. Although James and Elisabeth have disengaged from the family business, Elisabeth continues to manage the production company Sister, while James is involved as an investor and serves on Tesla’s board of directors.
In addition to raising her children, de Peyster earned a Master’s degree in literature and mythology from New York University, following studies at Fordham University in the 1970s. Starting in the 1980s, she authored three novels: In Her Own Image, Family Business, and Coming to Terms. During her marriage to the late Bill Mann, she became a well-known philanthropist and a prominent figure in both Palm Beach and Southampton.
The couple’s high profile led to significant media attention, particularly during a 1969 incident where they were mistakenly believed to be the target of a kidnapping. Tragically, the event resulted in the murder of Muriel McKay, the wife of a senior Murdoch associate.
De Peyster served on the board of News Corp for eight years before resigning following the revelation of Murdoch’s affair with Wendi Deng in 1998. Murdoch and Deng later married, while de Peyster and Mann enjoyed a marriage that lasted from 1999 to 2017.
In a 2001 interview with Australian Women’s Weekly, Anna Murdoch-Mann described her ex-husband as “extremely hard, ruthless and determined.” While she expressed confidence in her children’s capabilities, she also voiced concerns about the challenges they would face in competing for their father’s legacy. “I think they’re all so good that they could do whatever they wanted,” she reflected. “But I think there’s going to be a lot of heartbreak and hardship” during the succession process.
