Rupert Murdoch had ‘security guards watch’ as Jerry Hall packed belongings after divorce, report claims

A new report has brought to light new alleged details of the divorce between Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall.

The 92-year-old media tycoon reached a settlement with Jerry Hall, his fourth wife, last August after six years together.

Hall, a 66-year-old model and mother to four children with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, reportedly told friends she was “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the split.

In a new report on power struggles and family relationships in the Murdoch family, Vanity Fair revealed that after the pair’s divorce, Hall reportedly told friends that “security guards watched as her children helped her pack” when moving everything out of their Bel Air estate.

The report claimed that Hall had to show receipts to prove that items belonged to her.

The Independent has contacted representatives of Murdoch and Hall for comment.

Elsewhere in the report, it was alleged that Murdoch told Hall via email that he wanted a divorce.

In June last year, Hall was waiting Mr Murdoch to arrive at their Oxfordshire estate when she checked her phone, the report stated.

An email from Mr Murdoch, seen in the screenshot by the magazine, said: “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage. We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do … My New York lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.”

Murdoch’s marriage to Hall was his shortest to date after Patricia Booker (1956-1967), Wendi Murdoch (1999-2013) and Anna Murdoch Mann (1967-1999), and was the first wife with whom he did not have a child.

Hall reportedly told people that “Rupert and I never fought”, outside of small disagreements over political matters.

Months after the divorce with Hall was settled, Murdoch was seen on holiday in Barbados with Ann Lesley Smith, to whom he proposed on 17 March in New York City. It has since been reported that the engagement was called off.

Smith, a former radio host who is 25 years Mr Murdoch’s junior, was previously married to country and western musician Chester Smith, who died in 2008 at the age of 78. The pair recorded an album together in 2005, titled Captured by Love.