Democracy Dies in Darkness

Lachlan Murdoch, once the ambivalent Fox heir, makes his views clear

The News Corp. co-chair, Rupert’s eldest son, left no mystery about his conservative politics in a fiery speech

April 9, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
Lachlan Murdoch in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2019. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News)
7 min

Lachlan Murdoch’s first major media moment was also his first public humiliation.

It was 2005, and the oldest son of Rupert Murdoch was on the cover of New York magazine as “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Be King.” The dishy piece outlined how the elder media mogul had undercut his anticipated successor by siding instead with a beloved top executive, Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes, on key programming decisions. Licking his wounds, Lachlan, then 34, abruptly resigned his role in the family-controlled news empire and fled New York with his wife and child for their native Australia, which he referred to as their “spiritual home.”