Christmas is a time when families get together if they can - and, until this year, the Murdochs were no different. With members of the media dynasty spread across the globe, full family gatherings were rare, although in 2008, according to biographer Michael Wolff, the Murdochs spent the festive season together on a flotilla of private yachts. But more often in recent years it was Rupert - for many decades the most influential media titan in the world - and his daughter Elisabeth who would make time for each other.
After a bruising closed-court battle in Nevada that became public and an eventual agreement that shut Elisabeth and two of her siblings out of the family firm for good, relations are likely too strained for even the Murdoch family peacemaker to suggest communal tree-decorating.
Rupert's eldest child by his second wife, Elisabeth is the co-founder and executive chairman of the production company, Sister, which is behind hit television series, including Black Doves, The Split and This is Going To Hurt. In my experience, she is generous, intelligent and hard-working.
Friends are fiercely loyal and protective of her privacy. Nobody I have spoken to has a bad word to say about her. Many acknowledge, though, that it has been an incredibly testing year on the family front - even if Elisabeth, her younger brother, James, and elder half-sister, Prudence, are each around a billion dollars richer.
Money doesn't compensate for a father who, in his mid-90s, decided to rip his family apart because he believed it was in the interests of his business. The Murdochs have never been a traditional family - one reason why their story is said to have inspired the power struggles and backstabbing in the acclaimed TV drama, Succession. But this time, the schism feels more permanent.
James Murdoch's relationship with his father and older brother Lachlan appears irreconcilable. Earlier this year, he described his dad as a misogynist in an interview in US magazine The Atlantic, and referred to some of Rupert's courtroom behaviour as twisted. Lachlan, who Rupert had already chosen to run the business, is now definitively the only one who will take the reins after his father's demise.
Under Lachlan's leadership, the company has pursued a strategy centered on digital and streaming growth. While Rupert remains an influential figure, Lachlan has been able to stabilize Fox Corp, seeing successful expansions into digital platforms like Tubi. However, the family dynamic remains strained, and three of Rupert Murdoch's children have been effectively cut out of the family business after a contentious court struggle.
As Rupert Murdoch, at 94, maintains a formidable presence in his empire, questions linger about whether family healing is possible and what the future will entail for the Murdoch legacy.
