Wendi Deng
Wendi Deng (邓文迪; born 1969 in Xuzhou, China) is a former Vice President of Business Affairs at News Corporation’s Asian satellite television operation and is married to its chief executive Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful media owners in the world.
Childhood
Born in Xuzhou, Deng later moved to the southern city of Guangzhou with her parents and family (she has 2 sisters and a brother). Her father was president of a machinery factory in Guangzhou and the family was relatively wealthy by comparison with other Chinese residents at the time: the family lived in a 3-bedroom apartment.
Move to the US
Deng attended Guangzhou Medical College. In 1987 when Deng was 18, she met American citizens Jake Cherry, then 50 years old, and a former UNICEF executive, and his wife, 42, who were at the time residents of Guangzhou. Mrs. Cherry started teaching Deng English. The couple sponsored a student visa and Deng moved to the USA in 1988 to live with the Cherrys and to study at California State University in Northridge. After Mrs. Cherry discovered photos her husband had taken of Deng in a Guangzhou hotel room, she asked Deng to move out. Jake Cherry soon left his wife in 1990 to marry Deng. Five months into their marriage, Deng started seeing another man, a then twenty-something David Wolf. Cherry and Deng divorced after two years and seven months of marriage.
Deng then applied and was accepted by Yale University, where she pursued her MBA.
Marriage to Murdoch
After receiving her degree from Yale in 1996, Deng decided to go to Hong Kong to find work. On the plane there, she met Bruce Churchill from Star TV and obtained a position as an intern through him. In 1998 she met Rupert Murdoch, major shareholder and managing director of Star TV's parent company News Corporation. Murdoch divorced his wife, Anna, of 31 years in 1999 and married Deng on June 25, 1999 aboard the yacht Morning Glory on the Hudson river, 17 days after his divorce.
Deng and Murdoch have two children by artificial insemination: Grace Helen Murdoch (born November 19, 2001) and Chloe Murdoch (born July 17 2003).
References
- Crikey Daily, Rupert And Wendi On Their Chinese Joyride, 1st May 2000. [1]
- 21st Century Online, Murdoch's wife prepared to be a mother, 21st June 2001. [2]
- Lateline News, Rupert Murdoch Is New Father at Age 70, 20th November 2001. [3]
- Astrodatabank News, August 4 2003. [4]
Referenced By
Rupert K. Murdoch | Rupert Keith Murdoch | Rupert Murdoch
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