Voices: Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall: Could this be the most petty divorce in history?

If you thought you’d ever witnessed a divorce-gone-wrong, think again, because this trumps them all: Rupert Murdoch apparently ended his six-year nuptials with Jerry Hall… by email.

The newspaper magnate, who’s 92, reached a settlement with Hall, 66, who was his fourth wife, in August last year. But according to new reports, he broke the news to her that the marriage was over in the first place by way of an 11-word intro to his missive: “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.”

Vanity Fair revealed the contents of the “brutal” correspondence leading to the split, which allegedly left Hall “heartbroken” and “devastated”. It was also claimed that Murdoch, who’s said to be worth $19 bn, nevertheless forced Hall to “show receipts” of her belongings when she moved out of the home they used to share in Bel Air last June.

Wow. I’ve heard of terrible splits – have seen friends ravaged by drawn-out custody arrangements, having to drop their kids on the kerb every other weekend because they’re not allowed inside the house anymore. I even know of one breakup which resulted in someone burning all of their ex-spouse’s clothes in a child’s paddling pool in the garden.

To me it seems a great shame when things could be so different. It renders moot all the love you must have once shared – after all, you married them. And I’ve written before about how refreshing and healing – even enlightening – it can be to stay friends with an ex.

Murdoch and Hall’s divorce settlement cited “irreconcilable differences” and a joint statement said they remained “good friends”, but the key is in the detail. And this kind of alleged behaviour takes petty to another level. For one of the world’s richest men to nitpick over receipts, when he could probably afford to buy an identical replacement for every single item in that house if he wanted to, seems shockingly stingy.

Worse: it smacks of being pedantic for the sake of it – it also wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say it has an element of control. It looks very much like a power move, and a belittling one at that. It feels distinctly humiliating to tax Hall with “proving” her status within the household. It makes the entire marriage seem transactional.

What’s more, by reducing a relationship to its component materialistic parts, you have to wonder what the message is. If you’ve ever loved someone enough to marry them, do you really want their last impression of you to revolve around whether or not you personally paid for a toaster? To be left wrangling over who forked out £49.99 for that food processor, to quibble over whose decision (and bank card) it was to invest in a Christmas tree bauble shaped like a penguin?

If you’ve ever been tempted to do something similar, if you’ve held firm to the triviality of forcing your ex to “prove” their claim to... well, trivialities, then you might want to pay attention to one domestic item in particular: a mirror.

Rupert Murdoch, if true, this says a lot about you. And the look is far from flattering.