Anna Murdoch Mann dePeyster, a distinguished journalist, acclaimed novelist, and dedicated philanthropist, died peacefully at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on 17 February 2026, at the age of 81. She was surrounded by family and loved ones at the time of her passing.
Born Anna Maria Torv on 30 June 1944 in Glasgow, Scotland, she was the daughter of an Estonian merchant seaman and a Scottish mother. In her early childhood, her family emigrated to Australia. It was there she grew up and attended Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, New South Wales.
Anna began her career in journalism at age 18 as a reporter for the Sydney Daily Mirror and later the Sydney Daily Telegraph. It was there that she encountered media executive Rupert Murdoch, whom she married in 1967. Together they had three children: Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. Over the course of their 31-year marriage, she was an astute presence in the expanding Murdoch empire.
The high-profile 1969 kidnapping of Muriel McKay, wife of Rupert’s deputy Alick McKay, was reportedly a case of mistaken identity. Anna Murdoch was allegedly the intended target. Supposedly, the confusion came from the McKays using a vehicle owned by the Murdochs.
Anna and Rupert divorced in 1999. Her divorce settlement ($1.7 billion, including $110 million in cash) was reportedly one of the most expensive in history at the time.
Although she could have received more. In a world-wide exclusive with The Australian Women’s Weekly, she said that although she was entitled to half of Rupert’s wealth, she walked away from it.
“It was time to move on,” she said. “I knew I could create something of beauty again without all the painful memories.”
“I’m very comfortable,” she added of the divorce settlement. “And my children are protected, and that I was really what was most anxious about – that my children and their inheritance would be protected. And that’s what took so long – between the separation and the divorce – to get that right.”
In fact, she shared that although she was the one who first filed for divorce, she wanted to save the marriage. In the end, it was Rupert who was the petitioner.
“It was important to me,” Anna said in the exclusive interview, “for no reason except I believe when you take a vow to be loyal to someone and look after someone all your life, that you try and stick to that. You don’t hurt other people for your own happiness. “So on the papers … you would see that he was the petitioner for the divorce, and he was granted the divorce, not me.” Seventeen days later, Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng married in a secret wedding aboard his yacht in New York Harbour.
When journalist David Leser pressed her on which of her children would be the most suited successor to the Murdoch empire, she had a surprising answer.
“Actually, I’d like none of them to,” she said. “I think they’re all so good that they could do whatever they wanted, really. But I think there’s going to be a lot of heartbreak and hardship with this [succession]. There’s been such a lot of pressure that they needn’t have had at their age.”
How prophetic she was. In fact, it was so tumultuous that HBO produced a show inspired by the Murdoch family, Succession, starring Sarah Snook.
Following her divorce in 1999, she married financier William Mann six months later; he died in 2017. In 2019, she wed Ashton dePeyster, with whom she shared her final years until her passing.
Beyond her association with one of the world’s most powerful media families, Anna Maria built a career as a novelist. She wrote three books: In Her Own Image (1980), Family Business (1988) and Coming to Terms (1991). She drew on her experience of family dynamics and public life.
In later years, she focused on philanthropic work, particularly in health and children’s causes. She was involved with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and supported international medical initiatives, including work with Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. A practising Catholic, she was named a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II in recognition of her charitable efforts.
She is survived by her three children, as well as ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
