Murdoch Family Settles Trust Dispute, Lachlan Secures Control of Fox and News Corp
The long-running saga over the Murdoch Family Trust has reached its climax, and the outcome is crystal clear: Lachlan Murdoch is now firmly in the driver’s seat.
Fox Corporation confirmed on September 8 that the trustee and beneficiaries of the Murdoch Family Trust (MFT) have resolved legal proceedings in Nevada, bringing an end to months of speculation about the future of the empire Rupert Murdoch built. The settlement reshapes the family’s financial architecture and consolidates power in the hands of Rupert’s eldest son from his second marriage.
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Who’s In and Who’s Out
The deal divides the Murdoch heirs into two camps. Lachlan, along with his younger half-sisters Grace and Chloe, remain as beneficiaries of the new trusts that will hold the family’s stake in Fox and News Corp. Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, and James Murdoch—longtime figures in the family’s business drama—are out.
The departing beneficiaries won’t walk away empty-handed. They will receive new trusts funded with cash from the sale of nearly 17 million Fox Class B shares and over 14 million News Corp Class B shares. That translates into billions of dollars in value, but crucially, no ongoing influence over the companies their father spent a lifetime building.
Lachlan’s Grip Tightens
With the shuffle complete, a new holding company—LGC Holdco—will own the remaining MFT stakes: about 36% of Fox’s voting stock and 33% of News Corp’s. The arrangement cements Lachlan’s role as the family’s sole voting power. Rupert Murdoch, now 94, remains Chairman Emeritus, but the practical reins of power have officially passed to his son.
A standstill agreement ensures that Prudence, Elisabeth, and James won’t be back for a boardroom coup. Over the next six months they will divest even their small personal holdings, leaving Lachlan unchallenged. The trust’s term is set until 2050, locking in the control structure for a generation.
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The End of the Family Soap Opera?
For years, speculation swirled about whether James Murdoch—who has positioned himself as a critic of Fox News and its political slant—might mount a challenge. Elisabeth, with her production pedigree, was often touted as the heir with the creative spark. Prudence, the eldest, has largely stayed out of the spotlight. With this resolution, their chapter in the story of Fox and News Corp appears closed.
The board of Fox, in a statement that sounded equal parts relief and loyalty pledge, praised Lachlan’s “leadership, vision and management” as critical to guiding the company’s future.
What It Means for Fox and News Corp
Practically, little changes for viewers and readers in the short term. Fox’s brands—from Fox News to Fox Sports to Tubi—continue to churn out content with huge cultural reach and commercial muscle. But strategically, the consolidation signals that Fox and News Corp are betting on Lachlan’s worldview for the long haul.
Investors will watch closely to see whether the settlement quiets the family feud or simply sets the stage for the next act. But for now, one thing is certain: the Murdoch dynasty has narrowed its circle, and the empire Rupert Murdoch created has been reshaped into something unmistakably Lachlan’s.
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Lachlan Murdoch: The Heir Ascendant
For Lachlan Keith Murdoch, the settlement is less a windfall than a coronation. At 54, the Sydney-born executive has spent decades navigating the twin pressures of his family’s immense fortune and the skepticism of those who wondered whether he had the instincts—or the appetite—for power.
Educated in America but shaped by Australia’s sharp-elbowed media world, Lachlan has always presented a paradox: a laid-back surfer with a taste for risk. His early career saw him champion internet ventures before the dot-com crash, and later invest in Nova radio, betting successfully on youth culture. Yet it is his return to the family fold, after a high-profile break from News Corp in 2005, that defines him today.
Colleagues describe him as both more measured and more ruthless than his father, a combination that makes him harder to read. Rupert Murdoch was known for the bare-knuckle brawl; Lachlan prefers the long game, the quiet deal, the ability to wait until rivals exhaust themselves. “He’s inherited Rupert’s toughness,” one executive close to Fox once said, “but without Rupert’s appetite for theater.”
The settlement ensures Lachlan will guide Fox and News Corp through an era when the family name itself provokes strong emotions—admiration, anger, loyalty, distrust. Where his father was a global press baron who relished the limelight, Lachlan has cultivated a lower profile, rarely granting interviews and favoring the background over the spotlight. Yet his fingerprints are everywhere: in Fox News’s unshaken dominance, in Tubi’s streaming surge, in the company’s lean, domestically focused structure.
Now, with his siblings formally sidelined, Lachlan steps into a role he has been circling his whole life: undisputed steward of the Murdoch legacy. Whether he chooses to expand the empire, remake it, or merely protect it from the same digital disruption that felled so many rivals, one thing is clear—the story of the Murdochs is now the story of Lachlan.
The announcement from News Corp is here (pdf)
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