When Rupert Murdoch in 1998 announced his abrupt separation from Anna Murdoch, his wife of 31 years, almost nobody at the time, including Anna, had any idea, or could reasonably speculate, that Murdoch, then an old 67, might have a girlfriend.
But he did. And his divorce and remarriage, and the effect it had on his children, social life and executives, would shape the next generation of his company – a romance for our time, as it were.
With the curt, and blistering, announcement of his decision to file for divorce from Wendi Murdoch, the young woman he met when she was 28 and working for Star TV, his company in Hong Kong, another upheaval begins.
It was two summers ago that Wendi burst into the news and transformed her public self from harridan to heroine by, with lightening fast reflexes, blocking a pie attack on her frail-looking husband in the midst of a difficult testimony in Britain before a committee of parliament investigating the hacking scandal.
Murdoch had told his oldest son, Lachlan, that he'd concluded that marrying Wendi was a "mistake" – or so Lachlan, along with his siblings never a fan of his father's remarriage, was telling people. And during the many months that I was interviewing Murdoch in 2008 for my book about him, we would sometimes meet on weekend mornings at his apartment where it quite appeared he had not slept the night – but, rather, had arrived minutes before me with clothes bundled in his briefcase.
Indeed, if you imagined two opposite people, save only for their evident mutual ambition, it might be Rupert and Wendi.
Rupert, the cold, cryptic, scowling, impersonal, rock-hard conservative Australian aristocrat, with his four adult children unable to get over his marriage to the woman 39 years his junior. And Wendi, the energetic, ebullient, social creature, with natural liberal tendencies, whose first job in the US was at a Chinese restaurant and who had given him – "from the fridge", after his prostate cancer – two young Chinese children (and moved her parents to New York).
And yet, something seemed to work, too.
There was the orange hair die; the workout regimes; his protestations that he had finally learned how to be a good father; and his new friendship with, gasp, liberals. David Geffen, via Wendi, became one of Rupert's closest confidants.
Certainly, business seemed to energize them. I often heard them, like teenagers in love, talking on the phone – albeit about business deals and, more than not, from different cities. I even saw them holding hands.
But his children continued to dislike her. Even when they made every effort to tolerate her, it was with clenched teeth. And his mother, who died this past year, always refused to meet Wendi.
For her part, Wendi remained ever-furious with him for not standing up to his children – which included locking their children out of full participation in the trust that controls all the Murdoch assets.
She led a glamorous social life. In effect, she was the center of the jet set. It followed her: Hollywood, the art world, international super stars. She rejuvenated the jet set.
Rumors about their relationship dogged them. When the LA Times threatened to go public with a supposed story of infidelity, News Corp had lawyers debrief both husband and wife and convinced the paper to kill its story.
Robert Peston, the BBC's financial correspondent, who is said to be a close friend of Will Lewis, a key Murdoch lieutenant, tweeted that the real facts of the break-up are "jaw-dropping":
Am also told that undisclosed reasons for Murdoch divorcing Deng are jaw-dropping - & hate myself for wanting to know what they are
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 13, 2013
We can only speculate about what he might mean. However, a year ago, she gave an interview to the New York Times suggesting that they were living independent lives. And Wendi's emails go through News Corp, so the company surely knows who she is talking to and what she is up to.
And yet, during the past year, what people have most noticed is their closeness. She had seemed to become his key adviser, close enough that there has been speculation she would go on the board of the newspaper company being split from the larger entertainment company.
She had also become, to his children's ever-greater consternation, his gatekeeper. Outsiders did not get to Rupert without going through Wendi.
But now the split is dramatic. As harsh as the split from Anna.
And in the fashion that Rupert does things – peremptorily, wrathfully, implacably – it would seem to leave Wendi far out in the cold. There is her 1999 pre-nup, and, to boot, two post-nups. What's more, it is a fearsome thing when News Corp and the Murdoch family close their ranks against you. Indeed, it is not that easy to hire a law firm not conflicted out by its work for News Corp, or the promise of work. Her PR aide, Steven Rubenstein, is on Rupert's payroll – so his help disappears.
Except, of course, that Wendi knows all Murdoch's secrets. All of them.
当1998年鲁伯特·默多克突然宣布与31岁的妻子安娜·默多克（ Anna Murdoch）离婚时，几乎没有人（包括安娜在内）会想到，或推断出，那时已67岁高龄的默多克会交上一个女朋友。
但是他交到了。他的离婚、再婚，及其对他孩子、社交生活及高级主管的影响，都会塑造默多克公司的下一代——可以说成是我们这个时代的罗曼史。
默多克草率快速地声明向邓文迪提出离婚申请，当时两人相遇时，邓文迪年仅28岁，在默多克的香港公司星空卫视工作。这一举动又激起千层浪。
两年前的夏天，邓文迪闯入人们的视野，将她的公共形象由老泼妇转变成女中豪杰。当时，她文弱的丈夫正在英国为窃听丑闻案进行艰难的作证，她以迅雷不及掩耳之势阻止了一次蛋糕派的攻击。
默多克曾告诉过他的长子拉克伦（Lachlan），他认为自己和邓文迪的婚姻是个“错误”——又或者是拉克伦是这样告诉人们的，他和其他兄弟姐妹一样从不喜欢父亲再婚。2008年，我在采访默多克的大多数时间里，那时我在写一本关于他的书，我们有时会在周末的早晨在他的公寓里见面，他看上去明显一夜没睡——但是，他会比我早到几分钟，公文包里还塞着衣服。
实际上，你可以想象两个完全相反的人，两人相同的只有彼此共同的明显野心，这两个人就是鲁伯特和邓文迪。
鲁伯特是一名冷淡、神秘、愁眉不展、不带人情味、坚硬如石的保守派澳大利亚贵族，他的四个孩子不可能会对他与比他小39岁妻子的婚姻释怀。而邓文迪积极、热情、热爱社交，她有着天生的自由倾向，她在美国的第一份工作是在一家中国餐馆打工，她在他得了前列腺癌后，从“冰库里”为他生了两个中国小孩（并把她的父母带到了纽约）。
可是，他们之间有些东西似乎也行得通。
他说自己终于学会了如何做一个好父亲；而他与自由主义派结下了新的友谊。通过邓文迪，大卫·格芬（David Geffen）成为了鲁伯特最亲密的知己之一。
当然，生意似乎点燃了他们的热情。我经常听见他们像热恋的青年人一样打电话——虽然电话的内容是关于生意，而且更多的时候，两人身处不同的城市。我从未见过他们牵手。
但他的孩子一直不喜欢她。即使他们用尽了努力去容忍她，但也十分艰难。他去年去世的母亲从未愿意见过邓文迪。
另一方面，邓文迪对鲁伯特不敢与孩子们抗争的行为很是生气——她不让他们参与掌控默多克全部资产的信托基金。
她有着美妙迷人的社交生活。实际上，她是上流社会的中心。它们跟随着她的脚步：好莱坞、艺术界、国际巨星。她为上流社会注入了活力。
关于他们关系的谣言尾随而来。当洛杉矶时报（LA Times）威胁要将一则不忠的猜测消息公布于众的时候，新闻集团（News Corp）的律师盘问了两人，并劝说洛杉矶时报毙了这条消息。
英国广播公司的金融记者罗伯特·派森（Robert Peston）据说是默多克重要助理威尔??刘易斯（Will Lewis）的密友，他在推特上发帖说到，二人离婚的真相让人“瞠目结舌”：
我也被告知了，默多克和邓文迪离婚的原因让人瞠目结舌- 我之前还等着想知道他们的本来面目，我真讨厌自己
—罗伯特·派森（@ Peston）2013.06.13
我们只能猜测他的意思。但是，一年前，她在接受《纽约时报》（New York Times）的采访时曾暗示二人各过各的生活。而邓文迪的此番发言是新闻集团经手的，所以公司一定知道她在说什么，也知道她想要干什么。
而去年，人们大部分注意到的是他们之间的亲密。她似乎变成了他的主要顾问，他们之间很是亲密，亲密到有人猜测她会成为从默多克大娱乐公司分离出来的新闻公司董事会成员。
她也变成了他的看守人，这是他的孩子们最担心恐惧的事。外人要想接近鲁伯特必须先通过邓文迪这一关。
但是现在的分手消息着实充满了戏剧性。就像他和安娜分手时一样的刺耳。
按照鲁伯特做事的风格来说——独断、愤怒、执拗——邓文迪似乎颇受苦楚。她在1999年签订了婚前协议，婚后还有两份。而且，新闻集团和默多克家族把你踢出门外是件很可怕的事情。实际上，要雇请一家不和新闻集团利益沾边的法律事务所不是件易事。她的公关助理史蒂文·鲁宾斯坦（Steven Rubenstein）是靠鲁伯特发工资的，所以他是不会帮忙了。
当然，只是邓文迪知道默多克的所有秘密。所有。