{{Short description|British and Australian journalist (1944–2026)}} {{redirect|Anna Mann|the building|List of Reed College buildings#Buildings|her niece, the actress who shares her maiden name|Anna Torv|the psychoanalyst|Anna Mann Richardson}} {{Use British English|date=January 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Anna dePeyster | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DSG|size=100%}} | image = Anna Murdoch.jpg | caption = Anna dePeyster (then Murdoch) in 1981 | birth_name = Anna Maria Torv | birth_date = {{birth date|1944|6|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|2026|2|17|1944|6|30|df=y}} | death_place = Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|novelist}} | years_active = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Rupert Murdoch|1967|1999|reason=divorced}} * {{marriage|William Mann|1999|2017|reason=died}} * {{marriage|Ashton dePeyster|2019}} }} | partner = | children = {{hlist|Elisabeth|Lachlan|James}} | relatives = Anna Torv (niece) | website = }}
'''Anna Maria dePeyster''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DSG}} ({{nee|'''Torv'''}}; formerly '''Murdoch''' and '''Mann'''; 30 June 1944 – 17 February 2026) was a British and Australian journalist and novelist. She became the second wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was a director at News Corp.
==Early life and education== Anna Maria Torv was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 June 1944,<ref name="businessinsider">{{cite web|author= Willett, Megan| url=https://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdochs-history-of-divorce-2013-6|title= Here's What Happened The Last Time Rupert Murdoch Got Divorced| website= Business Insider|date= 14 June 2013|url-access=subscription| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618034610/http://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdochs-history-of-divorce-2013-6 |archive-date=18 June 2013}}</ref> to Jakob Tõrv (anglicised Jacob Torv), an Estonian merchant seaman, and Sylvia Iris Bodfish, a Scottish drycleaner's shop assistant. Her parents had a drycleaning business in Glasgow, until they emigrated to Australia.<ref name=leser2001>{{cite interview | title= Anna & her kingdom |first= Anna| last=Mann|interviewer-first= David|interviewer-last=Leser| url=https://davidleser.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Anna-Murdoch.pdf |publisher= Australian Women's Weekly| date= August 2001| access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>
After the picnic park that her parents had opened in Blacktown went bankrupt, her mother left the family household. She has two brothers, Jaan and Hans Arvid, and one sister, Karin Elisabeth. Raised Catholic, she attended St Patrick's Catholic School in Blacktown and completed her secondary education at Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta, New South Wales.<ref name=leser2001/> because St Patrick's at Blacktown did not offer the final two years of secondary education.
==Career== Torv started her journalistic career at the age of 18, working on Sydney's ''Daily Mirror'',<ref name="theindependent">{{cite news |last1=Zinn |first1=Christopher |title=Anna Murdoch Mann: 'He was hard, ruthless and determined' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/anna-murdoch-mann-he-was-hard-ruthless-and-determined-9162236.html |access-date=26 September 2017 |work=The Independent |date=27 July 2001 |language=en}}</ref> and also worked as a journalist for the Sydney ''Daily Telegraph''. She later served on the board of directors of News Corporation.<ref name="businessinsider"/>
==Writing== Under the name Anna Murdoch, she wrote the novel ''In Her Own Image'' (1985). It is about two sisters who fall in love with the same man on a sheep station close to the Murrumbidgee River.<ref name="vicki">{{cite news |last1=Woods |first1=Vicki |title=The loves, lusts and passions of Rupert Murdoch |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8640557/The-loves-lusts-and-passions-of-Rupert-Murdoch.html |access-date=23 November 2021 |work=The Telegraph |date=15 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Murdoch, Anna | title=In her own image | publication-date=1986 | publisher=New York Ballantine Books | isbn=978-0-449-21162-5}}</ref>
==Personal life and death== Torv was married to media mogul Rupert Murdoch from 1967 to 1999.<ref name="businessinsider"/><ref name="vicki"/><ref name="abcnews">Nathalie Tadena and Momo Zhou, [https://abcnews.go.com/Business/divorce-hefty-price-tag-celebrities-billionaires/story?id=8363063&page=2#.Ubopjet7GC4 "Divorce Has a Hefty Price Tag for Celebrities, Billionaires"], ABC News, 20 August 2009</ref><ref name="nyorker">Ken Auletta, [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/06/rupert-murdoch-wants-a-divorce.html Rupert Murdoch Wants A Divorce], ''The New Yorker'', 13 June 2013</ref> She and Murdoch had three children: *Elisabeth Murdoch (born 1968) *Lachlan Murdoch (born 1971) *James Murdoch (born 1972)
According to ''The Independent'', the people who in 1969 kidnapped and then killed Muriel McKay, wife of Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay, had originally intended to kidnap Anna Murdoch instead, and confusion arose when the McKays had made use of one of Murdoch's vehicles.<ref name="theindependent" />
They divorced on 8 June 1999 as a result of Rupert's affair with Wendi Deng.<ref name=leser2001/> Anna reportedly received $1.7 billion (including $110 million in cash) from the settlement.<ref name="businessinsider"/><ref name="abcnews"/> A later report said that she chose to take a "relatively small" settlement, comprising half cash and half property, of $US200 million, rather than go for half of his wealth, to which she was entitled under California law.<ref name=verrender2024>{{cite web |last=Verrender |first=Ian |title=Inside 'Project Harmony', Rupert Murdoch's desperate plan to keep control from beyond the grave |website=ABC News |date=21 September 2024 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-21/inside-the-murdoch-family-power-struggle/104376356 |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref> She said in a 2001 interview that she had been entitled to some of the seven homes they had shared, but walked away from that.<ref name=leser2001/>
She was instrumental in setting up a family trust at this time, to protect her children and to prevent Deng's children having a say in News Corp. In a 2001 interview with ''Australian Women's Weekly'', she spoke of how badly Rupert had behaved, not only having an affair, but pushing her off the board of News Corp.<ref name=leser2001/><ref name=ocarroll2001>{{cite web | last=O'Carroll | first=Lisa | last2=Barkham | first2=Patrick | title=Murdoch ex-wife breaks silence | website=The Guardian | date=25 July 2001 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/25/pressandpublishing.citynews1 | access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref> The trust gives the children born before this time (including stepdaughter Prudence, from Murdoch's first marriage) equal say in the fate of the businesses:<ref name=erskine2024/> each would have one vote in the trust, while their father would have four. Almost all of the family's wealth is in shares controlling 40% of both News Corp and Fox Corporation, and is tied up in the trust, which is worth around $US6 billion.<ref name=verrender2024/> The terms of the trust dictate that the four children would continue to have these votes after Rupert's death. When Rupert Murdoch made moves to change the terms of the trust so that only Lachlan would have voting rights in his companies in 2023, the other three children challenged this in court in 2024.<ref name=erskine2024>{{cite web | last=Erskine | first=Matthew F. | title=Succession: The Brewing Controversy Over The Murdoch Family Trust | website=Forbes | date=8 August 2024 | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewerskine/2024/08/08/succession-the-brewing-controversy-of-the-murdock-family-trust/ | access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref><ref name=rutenbert2024>{{cite web | last=Rutenberg | first=Jim | last2=Mahler | first2=Jonathan | title=The Murdoch Family Is Battling Over the Future of the Fox Empire | website=The New York Times | date=24 July 2024 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/business/media/rupert-murdoch-succession-fox.html | access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref>
She remarried six months later, in December 1999, to William Mann, a financier who was CEO of Henry Mann Securities.<ref name=ocarroll2001/> They remained married until his death in August 2017.<ref name="businessinsider"/><ref name=leser2001/><ref name="abcnews"/> During this time she was known as Anna Mann,<ref name=leser2001/> but often referred to in the press as Anna Murdoch Mann.<ref>{{cite web | last=Zinn | first=Christopher | title=Anna Murdoch Mann: 'He was hard, ruthless and determined' | website=The Independent | date=26 July 2001 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/anna-murdoch-mann-he-was-hard-ruthless-and-determined-9162236.html | access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref> The couple resided in The Hamptons, New York, in a house which they bought from philanthropist Yasmin Aga Khan in 2000.<ref name=leser2001/>
After Mann's death, she married again in April 2019 to Palm Beach property developer Ashton dePeyster,<ref>{{Cite web |author=Susan Adams |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/09/13/getting-away-with-murdoch-the-tabloid-barons-sordid-kidnap-tale/ |work=forbes.com |title=Darker Than Any 'Succession' Plot: The Murdoch Kidnap Tragedy |date=13 September 2019 |access-date=28 April 2021 |quote=Anna went on to remarry twice, first to financier William Mann, who died two years ago. In April she married Ashton dePeyster, 74, who works in real estate.}}</ref> a descendant of the 17th century mayor of New York Abraham de Peyster,<ref>{{Cite web|author=McGinness, Mark|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/rupert-murdoch-s-second-wife-and-glamorous-mainstay-anna-had-incalculable-influence-20240725-p5jwhp.html|title=Rupert Murdoch's second wife and glamorous mainstay, Anna, had incalculable influence|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=21 February 2026|access-date=20 March 2026}}</ref> and became known as Anna Maria dePeyster.<ref>{{cite web | last=Hassett | first=Kate | title=From Fiction To Fate: How Rupert Murdoch's Ex-Wife Predicted The Battle For Succession | website=marie claire | date=18 September 2024 | url=https://www.marieclaire.com.au/news/rupert-murdoch-family-trust-succession/ | access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>
She was the aunt of Australian actress Anna Torv, whose father is dePeyster's brother, the broadcaster Hans Torv.<ref>{{cite web | title=Torv is her own mistress | website=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=4 May 2008 | url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/torv-is-her-own-mistress-20080504-gdsc5e.html | access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>
DePeyster died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on 17 February 2026, at the age of 81.<ref>{{cite news|last=Walker|first=Jamie|date=20 February 2026|title=Vale Anna Murdoch Mann: Patron, novelist, philanthropist, confidante passes surrounded by loved ones|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/vale-anna-murdoch-mann-patron-novelist-philanthropist-confidante-passes-surrounded-by-loved-ones/news-story/3be155a38c01dc2d226d930dc40e2858|access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Cindy |title=Author and philanthropist Anna Murdoch-Mann dies at 81 |url=https://nypost.com/2026/02/20/world-news/author-and-philanthropist-anna-murdoch-mann-dies-at-81/ |access-date=20 February 2026 |publisher=New York Post |date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
==Recognition== In 1998, then Anna Murdoch, she was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honorary order conferred by Pope John Paul II, for having supported the Archdiocesan Education Foundation and other Catholic causes in Los Angeles. Her husband Rupert was made a knight.<ref>{{cite web | last=Dart | first=John | title=Pope Honors Rupert Murdoch, Roy Disney, Bob Hope | website=Los Angeles Times | date=3 January 1998 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-03-me-4508-story.html | access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *''In Her Own Image'' (Morrow, 1986) {{ISBN|9780688058876}} *''Family Business'' (Morrow, 1988) {{ISBN|9780449145678}} *''Coming to Terms'' (Fontana, 1992) {{ISBN|9780006470762}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name| 4769747}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:dePeyster, Anna}} Category:1944 births Category:2026 deaths Category:20th-century Roman Catholics Category:20th-century Scottish novelists Category:20th-century Scottish women writers Category:21st-century Roman Catholics Category:Australian expatriates in the United States Category:Australian journalists Category:Australian people of Estonian descent Category:Dames of St. Gregory the Great Anna Category:News Corporation people Category:Scottish billionaires Category:Female billionaires Category:Scottish emigrants to Australia Category:Scottish expatriates in the United States Category:Scottish people of Estonian descent Category:Scottish Roman Catholic writers Category:Scottish women journalists Category:Writers from Glasgow