Succession planning
The TV show Succession was inspired by the Murdoch family. Now it seems the show itself may have played a role in the Murdochs' latest power struggle.
“I don’t watch ‘Succession’,” James Murdoch told The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer in September 2019. “Not even a peek. Why would I?” That may still be true, but we now know the Murdoch siblings were across the smash hit HBO drama inspired by the family.
As The New York Times revealed on Tuesday (Australian time), Rupert Murdoch failed in his first legal attempt to amend the family trust to consolidate power in the hands of his eldest son Lachlan after he dies.
Buried within the story was the tantalising detail that, in early 2023, life in the Murdoch world had begun to imitate art.
“The proceedings revealed that Mr. Murdoch’s children had started secretly discussing the public-relations strategy for their father’s death in April 2023,” the Times reported.
