The king sat enthroned in the reception hall. His court circled around him in concentric circles, the favorites close by, the others at the back. Everyone elbowed and maneuvered to be heard. To do so, they had to go through a woman with flamboyant red hair, who acted as a mediator between the world and the monarch. This scene, recounted by a former British minister, dates not from the time of Louis XIV, but from June 22, 2023. The king in question is Rupert Murdoch, the all-powerful Australian-American media magnate, who was holding his annual reception in London.

All the UK's power players were present in Spencer House, a prestigious 18^th-century residence rented for the occasion: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife; no fewer than 11 current ministers and a slew of former ministers; the leader of the Labour opposition, Keir Starmer, accompanied by his party's top brass; the director of MI6, the foreign secret service; the director of MI5, the domestic secret service; influential communications advisors, editors and museum bosses. Everyone came to metaphorically kiss the great leader's ring, passing under the watchful eye of Rebekah Brooks, the woman who runs Murdoch's UK business, who is sometimes referred to as his "adopted daughter."

While pledging allegiance, everyone whispered about his state of health. This year, the 92-year-old remained seated throughout the reception. While he remains quick-witted and up-to-date on world affairs, his very old age is showing. His joke, launched in 1999 after surviving prostate cancer ("it convinced me of my own immortality"), is now just that: a joke.

Four decades of preparation

Rumors about his supposedly recent dinner where he fell asleep on his plate are repeated, as are his repeated falls, which were chronicled in a Vanity Fair article in May. About his strange fourth divorce, in 2022, from Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger's former wife, followed by the announcement of a marriage to an evangelical Christian, Ann Lesley Smith, which was annulled a few days later. But no one dared to stand in his way by refusing to attend his party. With parliamentary elections looming for the autumn of 2024, media support is at stake right now.

The billionaire's twilight seems to be never-ending. For some 30 years, his estate has been the subject of fascination, and Murdoch-obsessives have been scrutinizing his descendants' every move. The man has six children from three different marriages: Prudence, 65, from the first marriage, who has never been involved in the family business and describes herself as a "housewife"; Grace and Chloe, 22 and 20, from the third marriage, who have the same share of inheritance as the others, but no voting rights in the family holding company; and the three most important, from the second marriage, Elizabeth, 54, Lachlan, 51 and James, 50.

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