Anna Murdoch Mann, the journalist, novelist, and philanthropist who spent three decades at the centre of one of the world’s most powerful media dynasties, has died. She was 81.
Anna passed away on Tuesday, 17th February 2026, surrounded by family at her home in Palm Beach, Florida. Her death was first reported by the New York Post, one of her former husband Rupert Murdoch’s flagship publications.
She is survived by her husband Ashton dePeyster, her three children Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James Murdoch, 10 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
From Glasgow to Sydney to the World Stage
Born Anna Maria Torv on 30th June 1944 in Glasgow, Scotland, she was the daughter of an Estonian merchant seaman and a Scottish mother. Her family emigrated to Australia during her childhood, where she grew up and attended Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, New South Wales.
Her early years were far from easy. After her parents separated, she raised her younger siblings before launching her own career in journalism at the age of 18 as a reporter at the Sydney Daily Mirror and later the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
It was at the Mirror that she first encountered Rupert Murdoch, who had just acquired the paper. The two married in 1967 and remained together for 31 years.
 
Anna Murdoch Mann and Rupert Murdoch at the Forbes Magazine 70th Anniversary Party, May 1987.
The Woman Behind News Corp
Anna’s role in the Murdoch empire was far more than ceremonial. She served on the News Corp board from 1990 to 1998, and was described as an active partner in building the company into a global media force.
Their marriage produced three children who would go on to shape global media themselves. Lachlan Murdoch, their eldest son, secured control of the sprawling media empire in September 2025 following a settlement that saw James and Elisabeth exit the family business, each receiving an estimated USD 1.1 billion for their shares.
That same family succession struggle, which Anna had predicted with striking accuracy years earlier, became the inspiration for HBO’s hit drama Succession. In a 2001 interview, she described Rupert Murdoch as “extremely hard, ruthless and determined,” while also expressing both pride and worry about her children’s futures, saying there would be “a lot of heartbreak and hardship” during the succession process.
The pair split in 1998 after Rupert Murdoch’s affair with Wendi Deng, who became his third wife. Their divorce was finalised in 1999, with Anna receiving a reported USD 1.7 billion in settlement.
A Novelist Who Wrote What She Knew
Beyond the headlines, Anna carved out her own literary identity. She authored three novels, including In Her Own Image (1980), Family Business (1988), and Coming to Terms (1991), drawing on her lived experience of family dynamics and public life.
She also earned a Master’s degree in literature and mythology at New York University, having studied at Fordham University in the 1970s. It was a quiet but deliberate declaration: she was never just a media wife.
Anna Murdoch Mann relaxes beside the pool of her house in the Hamptons, Long Island. [David Leser]
A Philanthropist Who Chose Children
In the years after her divorce, Anna turned her considerable energy toward charitable causes, particularly those focused on children’s welfare.
- She served as chair of the board of regents at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and chaired Hospital Albert Schweitzer for children in Deschapelles, Haiti.
- During her time as a Los Angeles resident in the 1990s, she worked with the Children’s Institute, which supports more than 5,000 abused children each year. Her annual fundraiser brought in millions.
- She stepped down from her philanthropic leadership roles after being diagnosed with cancer.
In 1998, Pope John Paul II made Anna a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great, recognising her commitment to faith and community service.
Also Read: Santos Locks In 10-Year Gas Deal to Fuel Whyalla Steelworks’ Green Iron Ambition
A Family Legacy That Lives On
Anna Murdoch Mann was also the aunt of multi-award-winning Australian actress Anna Torv, who starred in the hit Australian series The Newsreader, portraying a high-profile news anchor navigating the cutthroat corporate media world of the 1980s – an era during which her aunt was the most powerful woman inside the real-life Murdoch empire.
After her divorce from Rupert Murdoch, Anna married financier William Mann. He died in 2017, and in 2019, she wed Ashton dePeyster, with whom she shared her final years.
Her story is one of a woman who entered history through marriage and then, steadily and deliberately, wrote her own chapters. As a reporter, a board member, a novelist, a mother, and a humanitarian, Anna Murdoch Mann left a mark that extended well beyond the empire she helped build.
