Anna Maria dePeyster (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Torv; formerly Murdoch and Mann; born 30 June 1944) is a British and Australian journalist and novelist. She became the second wife of media mogul

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

, and was a director at

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

Early life and education

Anna Maria Torv was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland in 1944 to Jakob Tõrv (anglicised Jacob Torv), an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

merchant seaman, and Sylvia Iris Bodfish, a Scottish drycleaner's shop assistant. Her parents had a drycleaning business in Glasgow, until they emigrated to Australia. After the picnic park that her parents had opened outside

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

went bankrupt, her mother left the family household. She has two brothers, Jaan and Hans Arvid, and one sister, Karin Elisabeth. Raised Catholic, she attended Our Lady of Mercy College,

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

, New South Wales.

Career

Torv started her journalistic career at the age of 18, working on Sydney's ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'', and also worked as a journalist for the Sydney ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

''. She later served on the board of directors of

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

Writing

Under the name Anna Murdoch, she wrote the novel ''In Her Own Image'' (1985). It is about two sisters who fall in love with the same man on a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

close to the

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

Personal life

Torv was married to media mogul

from 1967 to 1999.Nathalie Tadena and Momo Zhou
"Divorce Has a Hefty Price Tag for Celebrities, Billionaires"

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, 20 August 2009Ken Auletta
Rupert Murdoch Wants A Divorce
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', 13 June 2013 She and Murdoch had three children: * Elisabeth Murdoch (born 1968) *

Lachlan Murdoch Lachlan Keith Murdoch (; born 8 September 1971) is a British and Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the son of the media Business magnate, tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of N ...

(born 1971) *

James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is an American - British businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairma ...

(born 1972) According to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', the people who in 1969 kidnapped and then killed

Muriel McKay Muriel Freda McKay (4 February 1914 – ) was an Australian woman who was kidnapped on 29 December 1969 in the United Kingdom and presumed murdered in the first few days of 1970. She was married to Alick McKay, an executive at News Limited and ...

, wife of Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay, had originally intended to kidnap Anna Murdoch instead, and confusion arose when the McKays had made use of one of Murdoch's vehicles. They divorced on 8 June 1999 as a result of Rupert's affair with Wendi Deng. Anna reportedly received $1.7 billion (including $110 million in cash) from the settlement. A later report said that she chose to take a "relatively small" settlement, comprising half cash and half property, of $US200 million, rather than go for half of his wealth, to which she was entitled under

California law The law of California consists of several levels, including Constitutional law, constitutional, Statutory law, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law. The California Codes form the general statutory law, and most state agency regulat ...

. She said in a 2001 interview that she had been entitled to some of the seven homes they had shared, but walked away from that. She was instrumental in setting up a family trust at this time, to protect her children and to prevent Deng's children having a say in News Corp. In a 2001 interview with ''

Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known simply as ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Are Media in Sydney and founded in 1933. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before bein ...

'', she spoke of how badly Rupert had behaved, not only having an affair, but pushing her off the board of News Corp. The trust gives the children born before this time (including stepdaughter

Prudence Prudence (, contracted from meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four cardinal virtues (which are, ...

, from Murdoch's first marriage) equal say in the fate of the businesses: each would have one vote in the trust, while their father would have four. Almost all of the family's wealth is in shares controlling 40% of both News Corp and

Fox Corporation Fox Corporation (commonly referred to as Fox Corp or simply Fox) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, with offices also in Burbank, Cali ...

, and is tied up in the trust, which is worth around $US6 billion. The terms of the trust dictate that the four children would continue to have these votes after Rupert's death. When Rupert Murdoch made moves to change the terms of the trust so that only Lachlan would have voting rights in his companies in 2023, the other three children challenged this in court in 2024. She remarried six months later, in December 1999, to William Mann, a financier who was CEO of Henry Mann Securities. They remained married until his death in August 2017. During this time she was known as Anna Mann, but often referred to in the press as Anna Murdoch Mann. The couple resided in

The Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End (Long Island), East End of Long Island, consist of the town (New York), towns of Southampton (town), New York, Southampton and East Hampton (town), New York, East Hampton, which together compose the South Fork ...

, New York, in a house which they bought from philanthropist

Yasmin Aga Khan Yasmin Aga Khan (born December 28, 1949) is a Swiss-born American philanthropist known for raising public awareness of Alzheimer's disease. She is the younger daughter of American movie actress and dancer Rita Hayworth, and the third child of ...

in 2000. After Mann's death, she married again in April 2019 to Ashton dePeyster, and became known as Anna Maria dePeyster. She is the aunt of Australian actress

Anna Torv Anna Torv (born 7 June 1979) is an Australian actress. Her performance as Olivia Dunham in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox science fiction series ''Fringe (TV series), Fringe'' (2008–2013) earned her four consecutive Saturn Award for Best A ...

, whose father is dePeyster's brother, the broadcaster Hans Torv.

Recognition

In 1998, then Anna Murdoch, she was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honorary order conferred by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

, for having supported the Archdiocesan Education Foundation and other Catholic causes in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Her husband Rupert was made a knight.

Bibliography

*''In Her Own Image'' (Morrow, 1986) *''Family Business'' (Morrow, 1988) *''Coming to Terms'' (1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Anna Murdoch 1944 births Living people 20th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Roman Catholics Australian expatriates in the United States Australian journalists Australian people of Estonian descent Dames of St. Gregory the Great Murdoch family News Corporation people Scottish billionaires Scottish emigrants to Australia Scottish expatriates in the United States Scottish people of Estonian descent Scottish Roman Catholic writers Scottish women journalists Writers from Glasgow