SARAH VINE: Rupert Murdoch’s new romance with retired scientist Elena Zhukova proves some men just can’t live without a woman
Whether you think Rupert Murdoch is a dastardly villain or a captain of industry, you can’t deny his stamina.
He’s 92 and dating again after splitting from two women — fourth wife Jerry Hall and Ann Lesley Smith, to whom he was briefly engaged earlier this year — in a matter of months. Leonardo DiCaprio, eat your heart out.
Murdoch’s latest amour, retired scientist Elena Zhukova, seems an intriguing match. Her daughter, Dasha, was married to billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich — and it appears Murdoch and Zhukova were introduced by none other than Wendi Deng, Murdoch’s sharp-elbowed third wife.
Wendi is reportedly great friends with Dasha, as both live in New York and they share a passion for expensive art and philanthropy (financed by their ex-husbands).
These are the kind of women who know what they want — and don’t mess around when getting it. They’re a far cry from the more laid-back Jerry Hall: a relaxed, party-loving, rock’n’roll chick.
Whether you think Rupert Murdoch is a dastardly villain or a captain of industry, you can’t deny his stamina
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall Rupert Murdoch
It was clear to me that Murdoch adored Hall when I went to their wedding. He must have done, to put up with Bob Geldof’s hilarious but not entirely flattering speech on behalf of the bride. But in the end, I think she was perhaps just too much of a free spirit for Murdoch — not to mention his somewhat tricky family.
He needs someone to match his drive, and all Jerry wanted was a good time. At heart, she’s a hedonist; Murdoch is, first and foremost, a businessman.
So you can see why someone like Russian-born Zhukova might be the one. Not only is she stunning for her age — 66 — she also had a stellar career as a molecular biologist and diabetes specialist.
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But the real question many will be asking is: Why? What makes Murdoch, at the age of 92, bother to expose himself to the potential heartache of another relationship which may not work out?
The answer, I think, is simple. Men like him can’t manage without a woman. For all their success, they still harbour a fundamental belief that if they don’t have a glamorous woman on their arm, the world will see them as a failure.
I see it all the time. I know countless men who are roaring successes — but a lot of that success rests on the fact that they have a woman who’s got their back.
The same is not true of my female friends. Most of them would be better off without the men in their lives, but they’re far too nice to acknowledge it.
The truth is, men — even those with vast media empires — go to pot on their own. They quickly descend into a spiral of beer, pizza and too much TV football. Women, by contrast, left alone to their own devices, just buy more books, cushions and scented candles.
I hope it works out for Murdoch this time. As for Zhukova, I’m full of admiration. It would take a lot more than yachts and diamonds to tempt me from my quiet life.
Why do Lionesses get a Paleolithic pay deal?
I’m not big on football, but I am told there’s a game on today which may make history, and that the star of the show is a young woman called Alessia Russo.
As well as being a talented striker she is also, I gather, thought to be the first Women’s Super League player to earn more than £1 million a year. That may sound like a lot, but when you think that someone like Marcus Rashford earns considerably more than that in a month, it does make you realise that when it comes to equal pay, football is not so much stuck in the dark ages as somewhere in the Lower Paleolithic.
Will a win for the Lionesses change that? Don’t hold your breath.
I’m not big on football, but I am told there’s a game on today which may make history, and that the star of the show is a young woman called Alessia Russo (pictured)
Politics of Pride
London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweets about a stabbing outside a gay bar in the capital: ‘The horrific hate crime in Clapham is being robustly investigated by the police. It’s also a tragic reminder of why we need Pride.’
Er, no, Mr Khan: it’s a tragic reminder of why we — actually, no, you — need to do something about the horrendous levels of knife crime.
Gay, straight, trans or non-trans, old, young: all Londoners deserve to go about their business without fear of being attacked. How about, instead of politicising such a heinous crime for your own virtue-signalling purposes, you actually do something about it?
Dinner that’s too rich for my taste
I’m so old that I can remember a time when you could enjoy dinner in Saint-Tropez for a few francs a head.
Now some restaurants on the French Riviera are reportedly demanding a minimum spend of at least 100,000 euros (yes, you read that correctly) and blacklisting any customers who fail to leave sufficiently lavish tips. The same, I’m told, is true of certain hotspots in Ibiza, where a VIP table can set you back in excess of 10,000 euros.
All very well, I suppose, but the kind of people who have that much cash are not, in my experience, the sort you’d want anything to do with — not for all the money in the world.
Education policies have failed to make the grade
Like thousands of teenagers, my son faces a nervous wait for his A-level results tomorrow. But I, perhaps, am still more fearful, having read Education Secretary Gillian Keegan’s doom-laden words at the weekend warning pupils to expect lower grades than in the previous few years.
This, apparently, is to redress the grade inflation that stemmed from teacher-assessed marking during Covid.
That’s all very well, Ms Keegan, if it’s not your child’s future on the line — deprived of a proper education over the past few years, students have now been told that, despite all their hard work, they’ve had to take a grade cut to make your life easier.
Tell me, Ms Keegan, is it my son’s fault that the Government shut schools during Covid? Is it his fault schools have been hamstrung by striking teachers? Or that these A-levels are his cohort’s first real public examinations, since they never got to do their GCSEs? Is it his fault that universities are so greedy they increasingly give places to foreign students who pay the highest fees?
Or that the interest on student loans is so punitive (seven per cent) that many are deciding they cannot afford further education? Or that students are dropping out as the cost of accommodation is so high, with the majority supporting themselves by working, meaning their studies suffer?
And all while university lecturers go on endless strikes and refuse even to mark their exam papers? I’m sorry Ms Keegan, but the education system in this country is a mess, and fiddling with A-level grades is not going to fix it. Meanwhile, the one group of people — the Covid generation — that you should be helping is the one you seem intent on punishing. I doubt they will ever forgive you, or for that matter, the Conservative Party. And neither will I. Good luck to everyone tomorrow. You’re going to need it.
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