By Mitchell Goodbar and Nic White for Dailymail.Com
00:30 02 June 2024, updated 05:10 02 June 2024
High-profile guests including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft arrive for Rupert Murdoch’s wedding to biologist Elena Zhukova.
The media mogul, 92, and Zhukova, 62, are believed to be holding a wedding ceremony in the vineyard of his impressive Bel Air mansion, Moraga.
After a six-year marriage to Jerry Hall that lasted from 2016 to 2022, Saturday’s wedding will be Murdoch’s fifth marriage.
Kraft arrived with his wife, Dana Blumberg, and posed for an impromptu couple pose next to the driveway after turning his car over to valets.
The paper and packaging mogul wore a blue suit with a white shirt and matching Nike trainers in both of those colors – presumably to be swapped out later.
Blumberg chose a black dress that was partially sheer at the top, a matching handbag and a sparkling necklace.
News Corp CEO Robert Thompson dutifully attended his boss’s wedding to wife Wang Ping, who arrived in a striking yellow floral shirt over a green dress.
All guests arrived in luxury cars from brands including Audi, Bentley, Jaguar, Lexus and a Chevy SUV.
Murdoch, whose fortune is about $20 billion, met Zhukova through his third wife, Wendi Deng.
The images show workers dragging carts and buckets of flowers along a cobbled path towards the estate.
The flowers – white and delicate – seem appropriate for a wedding ceremony.
Leafy green flowers in brown paper bags were also removed from the truck and taken towards the property.
In one image, two men appear to be standing along the perimeter of the vineyard. One of the men points a finger to make sure that some wedding detail is not overlooked.
There also appears to be an increased security presence. The pictures show men in dark jackets patrolling the street outside the Bel Air mansion.
In the next picture, a member of the security team is standing on the balcony and watching the events below.
In other photos, butlers in cobalt blue suits with crests stand ready to park the luxury cars in which the guests will surely arrive.
The grounds are surrounded by tall hedges that hide most of the activities that take place behind them.
Murdoch and Zhukova appear to have opted for a more intimate ceremony at a vineyard in Moraga, where the tycoon intends to spend time and enjoy his retirement.
After Murdoch announced the surprise news that he would step down as chairman of Fox. corp. and News Corp, confirmed to DailyMail.com that he will focus most of his time on producing premium wines at his vineyard.
“He wants Moraga to be a big part of his legacy,” a Murdoch insider told DailyMail.com. “They see it as their responsibility to ensure that the property has a secure future and that more people get to know the wine.”
“He wanted to step down while he knew he had time and enough energy to focus on other things, especially Moraga,” the source added.
Murdoch bought the unique estate in August 2013 through his Moraga Canyon Vineyards LLC from former Northrop Grumman CEO Tom Jones after seeing it for sale in the Wall Street Journal’s mansions section, part of the media stable he ran.
Los Angeles County property records reveal the purchase price was $22.3 million, rather than the widely reported $28.8 million — perhaps an example of Murdoch’s ability to broker a good deal.
Jones first planted vines on the property in 1980. He got Murdoch to promise to keep the property as a working winery, and he did.
The unique estate is located on a 16-acre plot in the center of the LA metropolis.
The secluded property, which is hidden behind a 7-foot-high stone wall covered in ivy and a large wooden fence in the driveway, was first built in 1937 as a horse ranch.
The first owner was Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz director Victor Fleming. Back then, it hosted Hollywood greats like Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh, Ingrid Bergman and Spencer Tracy for horseback riding and extravagant parties.
In addition to the 7,500-square-foot ranch-style home, there is a guest house, various other outbuildings, and a wine cave, the only one in Los Angles County.
It is Moraga, located on quiet, tree-lined Moraga Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains, that has captured Murdoch’s heart more than any of his other luxury homes.
Sources say Hall, 25 years her junior, had hoped to inherit the vineyard and had taken an online wine course before Murdoch shocked her by email in 2022 that their marriage was over and he wanted a divorce.
Between his divorce from Hall and his relationship with Zhukora, Murdoch was engaged for several weeks to Ann Lesley Smith, a retired dental hygienist.
The media mogul’s first marriage was in 1956 to Patricia Booker, with whom he divorced eleven years later in 1967.
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In the same year, Murdoch married his second wife, Anna Maria Torva, with whom he remained for 32 years before finally divorcing in 1999.
Later that year, Murdoch married Deng, his third wife. They divorced in 2013.
Zhukova, Murdoch’s soon-to-be fifth wife, immigrated to the United States from Moscow. She was previously married to Alexander Zhukov, an energy billionaire.
Already in March, Murdoch and Žukova sent out invitations to the wedding, in which it was said that the event would take place in June in the tycoon’s beloved Moraz.
Now that both groomsmen are retired, the couple plans to spend time at the Bel Air estate, where Murdoch hopes to build an internationally competitive winery.
But unlike the billions made by media companies that Murdoch was aware of, winemaking wasn’t a big money maker.
The business loses $2-3 million a year due to taxes, real estate prices, and because it is in a residential area with houses on all sides, the number of vineyards cannot be increased to increase production.
Fortunately, the wine already has a cult following, and Murdoch intends to capitalize on that.
A self-confessed oenophile, his goal is for “wine lovers everywhere to have the opportunity to understand the unique nuances of our specific soil in Moraga and how that translates into the amazing wines we create,” according to Moraga’s website.
“We’re not Napa or Bordeaux,” explains Murdoch. “We are Moraga and we deserve a place at the table with the rest of the world’s best wines.”