Rupert Murdoch, aged 92, has announced he is engaged to retired scientist Elena Zhukova, 67, after meeting her through his third wife Wendi Deng.
The Fox patriarch started dating Zhukova over the summer after his previous his engagement to former police chaplain and vineyard owner Ann Lesley Smith was called off just two weeks after it was announced.
DailyMail.com revealed the couple started dating in August when the two were spotted cruising the Mediterranean on a family summer holiday.
She is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, a Russian socialite who is famous for her marriage to Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Dasha and Murdoch’s third wife Wendi Deng are great friends in New York and it seems that this is the connection. ‘They met through Wendi and Dasha’, said a source.
Invitations for the wedding have been sent out and the event is to be held in June at Murdoch’s California estate, Moraga, reported The New York Times.
Zhukova is a twice-divorced molecular biologist and specialist in diabetes. She has lived in America for over three decades after leaving Russia in 1991 with her daughter.
Before retiring she worked at the medical research unit in UCLA. Sources said she spends a lot of time with her grandchildren by Dasha and Roman.
Dasha, 42, divorced Abramovich in 2019 and her settlement included a four-story house in Manhattan. She is now married to Stavros Niarchos, the billionaire heir to the shipping dynasty.
Murdoch is engaged to retired scientist Elena Zhukova (center)
