What do Britney Spears and Rupert Murdoch have in common?

Their lawyer: Adam Streisand.

That’s a fun fact to start your weekend off – but why would I choose today to take an interest in 93-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s legal representation?

A legal drama over his vast estate and business power has secretly been taking place in a court near glistening Lake Tahoe in the U.S. state of Nevada.

If it weren’t for a team of attentive and spirited journalists from The New York Times, the world might never have known about the legal battle playing out between four siblings who are fighting over who will take control of their father's businesses. (Sound familiar? Hello to the Succession fans.)

Here’s what we know about the latest Murdoch saga.

If you haven’t heard of the Murdochs, ask your parents. They’ll very likely have an opinion to share.

Or better yet – ask Kevin Rudd, Australia’s former Prime Minister – who once described Rupert Murdoch as an “arrogant cancer on our democracy”.

Rupert was born in Melbourne in 1931 and inherited his father’s newspaper business in Adelaide in the 1950s.

Since then, he has arguably become one of the most powerful figures in the media industry, ever.

He owns several Australian, American, and British news publications and TV networks. Think: Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Sun, The Times, The Australian, Sky News, news.com.au, and the list goes on.

Forbes estimates Rupert’s net worth is $US20.2 billion ($AU30.3 billion).

Rupert has six children from five marriages.

Lachlan, 53, is Rupert’s eldest son.

Rupert has handed more and more responsibilities to Lachlan over the years. In 2019, Lachlan became the CEO of Fox Corporation – one of the biggest media companies in the U.S. that owns channels including Fox News.

After seven decades at the helm, Rupert stepped down as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp.

Lachlan was anointed as the sole chair of News Corp.

So, why Lachlan and not his siblings?

The inner workings of the Murdoch family are a source of hot speculation full of cold leads.

Lachlan’s younger brother, James, was once actively involved in the Murdoch media empire as CEO of the British conglomerate, News International (now News UK). He was later made chief executive of 21st Century Fox; which was a major entertainment company.

James no longer works for his father. He quit the family company in 2020 over unspecified “disagreements”.

The Murdoch media’s coverage of the 2020 election prompted James to tell the Financial Times: “Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies.”

While he didn’t name Rupert or Lachlan, it was widely seen as a rebuke of their role in platforming Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. Fox News was later sued for allegedly spreading Trump-fuelled lies about the voting company, Smartmatic.

Australian journalist Paddy Manning, who’s written a biography of Lachlan Murdoch, has reported that James was “iced out” after his public criticism.

Okay, this is where it gets a little complicated.

Let’s go back to 1999, when Rupert and Anna Murdoch got divorced. He set up what’s known as an “irrevocable trust” to divide up his assets after he dies.

When he first set up the trust, he had four children. By 2006, he had had another two children with his then-wife Wendi Deng, Chloe and Grace Murdoch, who were added to the trust.

The trust shows his properties, shares, and money will be shared among his six children.

The New York Times has uncovered that part of this trust splits control over Murdoch’s companies – Fox Corp and News Corp – between four of his children: Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, and Prudence. Chloe and Grace Murdoch don’t have any voting rights, which was part of the agreement when they were added to the trust in 2006. 

Now, this means that all four children would have the same voting rights. Therefore, it’s mathematically possible Elisabeth, James and Prudence could vote as a block to force Lachlan to change the direction of the company (3 vs. 1, clear winner!)

The New York Times uncovered 48 pages of court documents showing Rupert wants to change his “irrevocable trust” to give full control over his media empire to Lachlan.

Why? Well, the reporters theorise that Rupert doesn’t want sibling rivalry to hurt his business fortunes after he dies.

But, irrevocable means the trust can’t be changed… right?

Normally that’s true, and the trust will stay the same unless all his children agree to the changes.

However, there could be an exemption in the state of Nevada if Rupert’s legal team can prove that changing the trust is in all of the children’s best interests.

Rupert’s lawyers – which include former U.S. Attorney-General William Barr and Adam Streisand, who has represented Britney Spears in removing her father’s conservatorship – have made a legal bid to change the trust to give more power to Lachlan. 

Elisabeth, James, and Prudence have teamed up to block Rupert’s efforts to change the trust.

So, you can picture it like a standoff: three aggrieved siblings vs. the father-son duo of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. 

The legal proceedings kicked off in the state of Nevada earlier this week.

The city of Reno, slightly north of the jewelled Lake Tahoe at the California border, will play host to the Murdoch family drama.

The court rejected multiple news outlets’ efforts to make the proceedings public. So, we’ll likely be leaning on more “sources close to the family” or “insiders” to give us clues about what’s going on in Reno.

One of the strangest things about the Murdochs is how little we truly know about them.

They are rarely in public view. 

But the stakes are high. The future of the world’s most powerful media empire hangs in the balance.

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In this week's wrap of good news, we talk about sustainable furniture ideas, the new Aussie star of Bridgerton, a 70-year-old medical student and a new baby white rhino.