鄧文迪和默多克簽署離婚協議 或將分得豪宅

Media baron Rupert Murdoch and his soon-to-be-ex-wife said they were parting with "mutual respect" on Wednesday after telling a judge they had reached a divorce deal.

The chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox and his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng Murdoch, shook hands and briefly hugged after a brief proceeding in a Manhattan court. The terms of the agreement weren't disclosed in court. The divorce is said to have cost Murdoch $1.7 billion, including a cool $100 million in cash. Deng Murdoch is expected to keep the couple's home in Beijing and their Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, purchased in 2004 for a then-record $US44 million.

"We are pleased to announce that we have reached an amicable settlement of all matters relating to our divorce," the two said in a statement released through a publicist. "We move forward with mutual respect and a shared interest in the health and happiness of our two daughters."

The divorce isn't technically final; it will happen after state Supreme Court Justice Ellen Gesmer signs some yet-to-be-submitted paperwork.

The settlement is largely based on two prenuptial agreements and two "postnuptial" agreements that modified the original agreements, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The divorce will end a third marriage for Rupert Murdoch, 82, who got his start in his family's newspaper business in his native Australia and built a global media conglomerate. Forbes pegged his and his family's wealth at $US13.4 billion in September.

The divorce won't affect control of the News Corp and 21st Century Fox or the succession plan for them. Rupert Murdoch controls them through a family trust that benefits his four children from previous marriages. Upon Rupert Murdoch's death, all four will have an equal say in what happens to the roughly 38 percent voting stock the trust holds in both companies.

He and Wendi Deng Murdoch, 44, have two school-age daughters, Grace and Chloe. They are beneficiaries of 8.7 million non-voting shares being held in a separate trust. Wendi Deng Murdoch is not a shareholder, according to the person familiar with the situation.

Born in China, Wendi Deng Murdoch is a Yale graduate who worked as a junior executive at News Corp's subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong, where she met her now-husband at a 1997 cocktail party. She left Star TV before marrying the media mogul in 1999 aboard Murdoch's private yacht, in New York.

She produced the 2011 movie Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, released by News Corp's Fox Searchlight.

Wendi Deng Murdoch literally leaped into the spotlight when she jumped up to smack a protester who was throwing a cream pie at her husband during a 2011 British parliamentary hearing into phone hacking by News Corp newspapers.

The couple had residences in New York, London, Beijing and elsewhere that were the subject of negotiations in their divorce.傳媒大亨魯伯特•默多克和華裔妻子鄧文迪當天宣佈達成離婚協議，並表示是帶着對對方的尊重分開的。

默多克和鄧文迪在紐約曼哈頓法院簽署了離婚協議，現場氣氛融洽，雙方在出庭後還簡單地握手擁抱。離婚協議的具體條款未在法院公佈。據知情人士透露，默多克爲離婚“破費”17億美元，其中包括1億美元現金；鄧文迪預計將獲得夫婦二人位於北京和曼哈頓第五大道的房產，前者是故宮邊的豪華四合院，後者是2004年以4400萬美元購置的。

兩人發表聲明說：“我們很高興地宣佈，已經就離婚事宜達成和解。我們相互尊重，共同關心兩個女兒的健康和幸福。”

從法律意義上來說，目前兩人的離婚手續還未完成。兩人還要提交一些文件，等州最高法院大法官埃倫•格斯梅爾簽署後，離婚方可生效。

據知情人士19日透露，這項離婚協議是根據夫婦二人的兩項婚前協議和兩項婚後協議擬定的。

這次離婚是默多克的第三次婚變。現年82歲的魯伯特•默多克在出生地澳大利亞靠家族報業發家，並創建了一個跨國傳媒集團。福布斯估計默多克家族的財產在今年九月份達到了134億美元。

默多克的第三次婚變不會改變新聞集團和21世紀福克斯公司的控制權和繼承計劃。默多克通過一個家族信託基金控制着公司，他和兩位前妻所生的四個子女將從中受益。在默多克死後，這四個子女將平等地享有對兩個公司38%的有表決權股票的繼承權。

現年82歲的默多克和44歲的鄧文迪育有兩個在上小學的女兒，格蕾絲和克洛艾。她們是870萬股無投票權的單獨信託基金的受益人。據知情人透露，鄧文迪不是股票持有人。

在中國出生的鄧文迪畢業於耶魯大學，曾在默多克新聞集團下屬的香港星空傳媒工作，並於1997年在一次雞尾酒會上結識默多克。1999年她離開了星空傳媒，隨後和這位媒體大亨在紐約的一艘私人遊艇上成婚。

她曾擔當2011年美國福克斯探照燈公司發行的電影《雪花祕扇》的製片人。

2011年她丈夫在英國國會下屬委員會的聽證會上，爲《世界新聞報》電話竊聽醜聞作供時，一個抗議者向默多克扔奶油餡餅，鄧文迪立即起身掌摑抗議者，這一舉動使她迅速成爲媒體關注焦點。

這對夫婦在紐約、倫敦、北京等地都有居所，這些房產都是離婚談判的主題。