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Robert De Niro has revealed he confronted heiress Elisabeth Murdoch over her father Rupert’s media empire, telling her: “You can still love your father, but you can tell him he is wrong for what he is doing to this country.”
The pair reportedly met at a dinner party in 2022.
In a Wall Street Journal article about the Murdochs’ succession battle, the publication reports that the confrontation left 56-year-old Elisabeth “visibly shaken.”
De Niro, 81, said he later telephoned her to apologize for his outburst. “I called Elisabeth and told her I was sorry. I saw how upset she was and felt badly about that.”
Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling media empire includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, along with other newspaper and TV outlets.
His family is said to be currently involved in a battle over money and power. In July, The Independent’s Chris Blackhurst wrote: “When is $2bn not enough? When you’re James Murdoch and it’s given to you by your father, Rupert.”
Blackhurst continued: “James’s lack of gratitude has earned him the sobriquet ‘the troublesome beneficiary’ among Rupert’s lawyers. Presumably, the 93-year-old mogul has a less understated, not so polite, phrase of his own for his younger son. Certainly, Logan Roy from Succession would have one, if his son Kendall were behaving in such a fashion.
“It’s impossible not to compare the latest machinations within the Murdoch dynasty with the hit TV series. As in Succession, the Murdochs’ feuding involves glamorous lifestyles and mind-boggling sums – with $2bn handed to each of Rupert’s six children in 2019 – and show-stopping scenes, such as his daughter Elisabeth reportedly hurling a string of expletives at the old man in December last year, when he told her and her sister Prudence of his plan to rewrite the terms of the family trust so that favoured son Lachlan would secure control of the media empire.”
De Niro is an outspoken Democrat supporter who earlier this year clashed with pro-Donald Trump protesters outside the former President’s hush money trial.
De Niro said that Trump wants to “destroy not only the city but the country and eventually he could destroy the world,” adding that Trump would “never leave” if he wins another term as President in November and that Americans can “kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”
