Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch may have to hand over the Oxfordshire properties acquired since his marriage to Jerry Hall in their divorce, according to national reports.

Mr Murdoch and supermodel Ms Hall married in central London in 2016 but are reportedly now splitting.

In 2019, the couple reportedly paid £11.25million for Holmwood House, a Grade II-listed Georgian property near Henley-on-Thames.

A year later, they snapped up Great Tew Manor – a Cotswold mansion in Great Tew which they bought to do up at a reported cost of £30million.

The move was not expected to be for several years because the centuries-old manor house is derelict.

Witney Gazette:

Reports said the couple planned to replace their roof with a dome, echoing the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

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The renovation project at Great Tew was "enormous" but no expense would be spared restoring the crumbling plasterwork and damaged masonry, the Mail on Sunday said.

The manor was at the centre of a row in 2019 when it was agreed that as part of planning permission for the Mullin Automotive Museum at Enstone Airfield, £11 million would be devoted to restoration of the manor through a Section 106 agreement.

Witney Gazette:

This is a legal agreement between local authorities and developers linked to planning permissions.

Many angry local residents wrote to West Oxfordshire District Council voicing opposition to the museum and its 28 lodges. 

Most were furious that the money was going towards the renovation of the manor, owned by a wealthy estate, rather than other improvements for the community, the Banbury Guardian reported.

If the A-list couple had moved there they would have been close to the Beckhams and Soho Farmhouse but also closer to two of Mr Murdoch's children.

James Murdoch owns the rectory at Broughton and Elisabeth Murdoch used to own Burford Priory.

It was reported she is currently building a sprawling new home costing "tens of millions" on the edge of the Cotswolds.

The divorce will be a fourth for newspaper magnate Mr Murdoch, 91, while Ms Hall, 65, was previously long-term partner to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger with whom she has four children.

Mr Murdoch was previously married to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, from 1956 to 1967; Scottish-born journalist Anna Mann, from 1967 to 1999; and Chinese-born entrepreneur Wendi Deng, from 1999 to 2014.

Across their marriages, the pair have 10 children.

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Last December the couple spent £228 million on a 340,000-acre cattle ranch near Yellowstone Park in the US.

The family’s other properties, believed to be held in trust, include a $50million New York apartment, a ranch in California, a $30million winery in Los Angeles, and a sheep and cattle farm in Mr Murdoch’s native Australia.

There is also a Mayfair apartment for when the media mogul is in London.

Newspapers say Ms Hall will be entitled to tens of millions but it will most likely be paid in the form of meeting her everyday expenses.

 

 

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