The ongoing Murdoch family drama is more like the TV show Succession than anyone could possibly have imagined, says McKay Coppins in The Atlantic. In December 2023, Rupert told three of his children – James, Prudence and Elisabeth – that he was rewriting the family trust to give his elder son, Lachlan, full control of the multi-billion-dollar family business after his death. The 92-year-old thought the change, codenamed “Project Family Harmony”, would prevent his more liberal progeny from defanging his conservative media empire. But James and his sisters took legal action to stop it. During the deposition, Rupert’s lawyer asked James a series of withering questions – “Have you ever done anything successful on your own?” – as Rupert sat in silence, occasionally typing into his phone. “He was texting the lawyer questions to ask,” says James. “How fucking twisted is that?”

The court case, which found in favour of the three siblings, was the climax of a real-life succession battle that had pitted James against Lachlan for “essentially their entire lives”. (Rupert never saw their sisters as contenders, says James, because “he is a misogynist”.) Texts and emails uncovered during the litigation revealed just how many “insidious stories” – portraying James as a “liberal dilettante” and his wife Kathryn as a meddling “former model” – had been planted by Rupert’s camp. James says his father was manipulative throughout. One packet of legal documents arrived with a handwritten note: “Dear James, Still time to talk? Love, Dad. PS: Love to see my grandchildren one day.” Really, the tone of Project Family Harmony was set from the very first family Zoom meeting they had to discuss it all. Lachlan stared at an off-screen laptop, not even looking at the camera. Rupert, surrounded by lawyers, “read robotically from a script”.

🛥️💍 Kathryn says she never entirely gelled with her in-laws. On her first family holiday, aboard Rupert’s 158ft superyacht, she caught the media mogul cheating at Monopoly – “he just smirked and shrugged” – and his wife Anna left one dinner in tears. Another time, when Rupert argued that gay marriage was an affront to the institution, Kathryn replied that some would say the same about divorce. “Rupert was then on his third wife.”

THE OLD FIRE STATION This three-bedroom home, once the fire station in Reepham, Norfolk, has been converted into a modern family house. On the ground floor is an open-plan kitchen with a breakfast bar and wine fridge, which opens on to an internal courtyard, on the other side of which is a spacious living and dining room. The bedrooms, one en-suite, are all on the first floor, along with a family bathroom. Norwich is a 35-minute drive. £625,000.

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