After spending a lifetime building an empire that includes newspapers, digital media companies, and television networks like Fox News, media mogul Rupert Murdoch began making moves to secure his legacy in 2023. But establishing which of his children would inherit control of the multibillion-dollar business resulted in a fight for succession that fractured the family.
From Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award–winning director Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), with episode 4 co-directed by by Sara Enright (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes), the four-part docuseries Dynasty: The Murdochs examines one of the world’s most influential families at a pivotal crossroads, giving viewers an in-depth look at the cutthroat dynamics between Murdoch and his eldest children. The series features interviews with journalists as well as private communications between the feuding family members, which have never been televised before, to illustrate the Murdochs’ strained history during the patriarch’s seven-decade career.
“[Rupert] wasn’t raising children, he was raising possible successors,” says journalist Jim Rutenberg in the docuseries about Murdoch’s quest to secure his legacy and establish a successor. By the time the media titan announced he was stepping down as chair of the mass media companies News Corp and Fox Corporation in 2023, Murdoch had molded three of his four eldest children into strong candidates: his oldest son, Lachlan; his daughter, Elisabeth; and his younger son, James. (Prudence MacLeod, Murdoch’s eldest daughter and the only child from his first marriage, decides she doesn’t want to be a major player in the succession race, despite working at one of her father’s tabloids, News of the World, early in her career. )
Lachlan, who shares Murdoch’s conservative values, initially gained favorability with his father while serving as an executive until he began clashing with the then-head of Fox News, Roger Ailes. Despite being considered a chip off the old block, Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth was viewed as a less formidable heir because of her gender — despite her time as managing director at the Murdoch-owned UK TV conglomerate Sky Networks. The younger of Murdoch’s two sons, James espoused more liberal viewpoints that put him at odds with his father and the right-leaning editorial voice of Fox News.
The series documents the rise of the Murdoch dynasty — detailing the years Rupert spent building his empire — as well as the contentious family dynamics he and his potential heirs developed over the years. Told through interviews with journalists who’ve been covering the family for years and former employees of Murdoch’s companies, as well as private family communications unearthed from the Murdochs’ very public litigation, the show illustrates Rupert’s attempts to restructure the family trust in order to consolidate control under Lachlan. (When the trust was established, it gave each of Murdoch’s children at the time equal rights to his empire.) In the court battle that ensued, Rupert and Lachlan sought to wrest control of the family business away from Elisabeth, James, and Prudence.
The Murdochs’ legal battle resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement in September 2025, with Lachlan gaining control of the family’s companies until at least 2050. Lachlan serves as chair of News Corp and executive chair and CEO of Fox Corporation.
“Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch, and James Murdoch are happy to have reached an agreement to settle the litigation initiated by their father, Rupert Murdoch, and brother, Lachlan, in 2023,” Rupert’s other eldest children said in a statement provided to the filmmakers of Dynasty: The Murdochs. “Prudence, Elisabeth, and James are pleased that the matter is now behind them.”
Rupert, who is 95 years old, now serves as chairman emeritus of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
