Murdoch Lawsuit: The 1999 Trust Ruling and $3.3B Settlement

The Murdoch family trust lawsuit was Rupert Murdoch’s late-life attempt to rewrite an irrevocable 1999 trust so that his eldest son Lachlan would inherit sole control of Fox Corporation and News Corp, cutting three of his other children out of the voting power they had been promised. He lost in a Nevada probate court in December 2024, then achieved the same result by check: a September 2025 settlement worth roughly $3.3 billion bought out Prudence, Elisabeth, and James Murdoch and locked in Lachlan’s control through 2050.

The 1999 Trust and the Family Rift

Rupert Murdoch created the family trust in 1999 during his divorce from his second wife, Anna. It was irrevocable, and it gave each of their four children — Prudence, Elisabeth, James, and Lachlan — an equal voting share in the family’s media holdings once Rupert died.¹

That equal-vote structure held for two decades. By the early 2020s, the siblings had drifted apart politically. James Murdoch left the News Corp board in 2020, citing disagreements with editorial content, and later criticized Fox News’s coverage of the 2020 election and climate change. Elisabeth and Prudence were described as sharing his general outlook.² Lachlan was the one Rupert believed would keep Fox News on its conservative editorial course.

What Rupert Asked the Court to Do

On October 30, 2023, Rupert filed a petition in Nevada probate court to amend the trust. The case was assigned number PR23-00813 and titled “In the Matter of the Doe 1 Trust,” a pseudonym reflecting the secrecy that would surround the proceedings.³ His aim was to strip the equal-voting provision and hand sole control to Lachlan.

The trust did allow amendments, but only ones made “solely to benefit the heirs.” Rupert’s attorney, Adam Streisand, argued that unified leadership under Lachlan was necessary to preserve the commercial value of the companies and that disagreement among the siblings would destabilize them.⁴

James, Elisabeth, and Prudence opposed the petition, arguing the amendment was not for their benefit but a bid to entrench Lachlan’s power at their expense. A Nevada probate judge rejected a request from a coalition of news organizations, including The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, and NPR, to open the hearings.¹

The “Carefully Crafted Charade” Ruling

In December 2024, Nevada probate commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. issued a 96-page ruling rejecting the petition. Gorman found that Rupert and Lachlan had acted in “bad faith” and characterized their effort as a “carefully crafted charade” designed to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” regardless of the impact on the companies or the other beneficiaries.⁵

The proposed changes, Gorman concluded, did not meet the trust’s own requirement that amendments serve the best interests of all beneficiaries. He also rejected claims by Rupert’s side that the three older siblings had been plotting to oust Lachlan, finding that accounts of a September 2023 meeting at Claridge’s Hotel in London were not sufficient evidence of any conspiracy.⁶

James, Elisabeth, and Prudence issued a joint statement welcoming the decision and expressing hope the family could “move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships.”⁵ Rupert’s attorney signaled an intent to appeal. Under Nevada procedure, the commissioner’s recommendation would need to be adopted by a district court judge before any appeal could go forward.⁶

The $3.3 Billion Settlement

Instead of pursuing the appeal, the family negotiated. On September 8, 2025, Fox Corporation and News Corp announced the resolution of the Murdoch Family Trust matter.⁷ The settlement, valued at approximately $3.3 billion, gave Lachlan through negotiation what Rupert had failed to obtain in court.⁸

The main terms:

Prudence, Elisabeth, and James each received approximately $1.1 billion for all their shares in the family businesses, about 80 percent of the value of their stock.⁸
To fund the buyout, Fox Corp and News Corp sold roughly 16.9 million Fox Class B shares and 14.2 million News Corp Class B shares, raising about $1.37 billion at a roughly 4.5 percent discount to the last closing price.⁹
The original irrevocable trust was dissolved.¹⁰
A new structure was created, centered on a Delaware LLC called LGC Holdco, for the benefit of Lachlan, Grace, and Chloe Murdoch (Rupert’s two youngest daughters from his marriage to Wendi Deng). The trust has a set term ending in 2050.⁷
Grace and Chloe are financial beneficiaries of the new trust, but voting control over all Fox and News Corp shares held by LGC Holdco rests solely with Lachlan through his appointed managing director.¹¹
The departing siblings are bound by a standstill agreement, reported to run twelve years, prohibiting them from acquiring shares in Fox or News Corp or taking other specified actions regarding the companies. They were also required to sell any remaining personal holdings in both companies within six months.⁷¹²

The share sales diluted the family trust’s voting stake from roughly 40 percent to about one-third in both Fox Corp and News Corp.¹⁰ Under a new stockholders agreement filed with the SEC, LGC Holdco and the family trusts are capped at 44 percent of outstanding voting power in Fox Corp’s Class B stock.¹³

Who Runs the Empire Now

Lachlan Murdoch holds the positions of executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation and chair of News Corp. Robert Thomson continues as News Corp’s global chief executive.¹⁴ Rupert Murdoch retains the title of chairman emeritus.⁷

Lachlan’s sole voting control through LGC Holdco is set to last until at least 2050.¹⁴ Grace and Chloe Murdoch, now in their early twenties, have no vote over company decisions. Under the trust’s terms, beneficiaries do not come of age until they turn 30.¹⁵

The Secrecy Fight

Throughout the litigation, the Murdochs fought to keep the case sealed. Orders recommended by Commissioner Gorman and upheld by District Court Judge David Hardy and Judge Lynne Jones went beyond ordinary confidentiality; at one point even the existence of the case was hidden from public view.¹⁶

A media coalition took the sealing question to the Nevada Supreme Court, which ruled on December 23, 2025 that the lower court’s blanket sealing “exceeds the scope permitted by Nevada law” and ignored established principles of public access. The court noted the public interest was significant because the trust “controls a major, publicly traded, political news conglomerate,” and ordered the district court to do a document-by-document review with “specific, nonspeculative findings” to justify any continued sealing.¹⁶

That review is still underway. In January 2026, Commissioner Gorman vacated the earlier sealing recommendation and ordered the parties to identify specific information they wanted kept private. Murdoch family attorneys have sought redactions of financial records and personal information; an advocacy group called Our Nevada Judges has objected to keeping hundreds of pages under seal.¹⁷

What the Case Says About Irrevocable Trusts

The dispute became a reference point in estate planning for what it exposed about the word “irrevocable.” Trusts described that way are not necessarily unchangeable when they contain amendment provisions, but courts will look hard at whether the standard for modification has actually been met. Professor Naomi Cahn of the University of Virginia School of Law noted that Nevada had “sought to be trust-friendly” and that those protections still did not save Rupert’s petition from a bad-faith finding.¹

1
University of Virginia School of Law. Professor Explains Legal Background Behind Murdoch Trust Dispute
2
BBC News. Rupert Murdoch Fox News Family Succession
3
Washoe County Courts. Notable Cases
4
ABC News. Rupert Murdoch Loses Legal Fight to Change Family Trust
5
The New York Times. Rupert Lachlan Murdoch Family Trust
6
GV Wire. Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust
7
Fox Corporation. Fox Corporation Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter
8
The New York Times. Murdoch Family Trust Succession Deal
9
NBC News. Lachlan Murdoch Cements Control of Fox, WSJ Media Empire in New Family Deal
10
NPR. Rupert Murdoch Fox News Family Succession Lachlan
11
News Corp. News Corp Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter
12
Inside Story. Murdochs Expensive Victory
13
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fox Corporation Form 8-K
14
The Guardian. Lachlan Murdoch News Corp Media Succession Australian Newspapers
15
ABC News Australia. Murdoch Money Trust
16
This Is Reno. Nevada Supreme Court Murdoch Trust
17
This Is Reno. Murdoch Family Trust Case Privacy