Rupert Murdoch ‘collapsed during breakfast with Rebekah Brooks’

A few weeks ago, Rupert Murdoch collapsed during breakfast with Rebekah Brooks amid Succession-style legal turmoil at his media empire, it has been claimed. This reportedly occurred when Murdoch was in London at breakfast with Ms. Brooks, the former Sun and News of the World Editor who heads his British operations.

Murdoch’s, now aged 93, wants the rights to change the terms of the family trust, giving sole control to his oldest son, Lachlan. This has thrown the future of the media empire, which includes the Sun and Times newspapers and Fox News in the US, up in the air. Lawyers for Mr Murdoch had argued that handing sole control to Lachlan was in the interests of all the siblings, as it would make it less likely that differing opinions could undermine the business and damage their inheritance.

However, it has widely been viewed as an effort by the tycoon to cement a Right-wing slant in his media empire even after his death. Under the current structure, control is split equally amongst Mr Murdoch’s four eldest children, Lachlan, James, Liz and Prue. The media tycoon was seeking to introduce a new “top hat” structure, which would essentially give control to Lachlan through creating new trustees.

This fall follows other recent health scares for Mr Murdoch, who is said to have suffered both a serious back injury in 2018 while on his son’s yacht and and to have been hospitalised with Covid in 2022.

For more information see Hannah Boland “Rupert Murdoch ‘collapsed during breakfast with Rebekah Brooks’” The Telegraph, February 14, 2025. 

Special thanks to Laura Galvan (Attorney, San Antonio, Texas) for bringing this article to my attention.