AceShowbiz - Anna de Peyster, an author, philanthropist, and the second wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has died. She was 81.

De Peyster died Tuesday at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, following a long illness, according to a report from the New York Post.

She was married to Rupert Murdoch from 1967 until their divorce in 1999. During their marriage, she served on the News Corp. board from 1990 to 1998. The couple had three children: Elisabeth, born in 1968; Lachlan, born in 1971; and James, born in 1972.

Born Anna Maria Torv in Glasgow, Scotland in 1944, she moved with her family to Australia in the mid-1950s. She began her career as a clerk at the Daily Mirror in Sydney, later becoming a reporter. She interviewed Murdoch, then the newspaper's publisher, and the pair married soon after his divorce from his first wife, Patricia Booker.

De Peyster earned a bachelor's degree in English from Fordham University and a master's in literature and mythology from New York University. Writing as Anna Murdoch, she published three novels: In Her Own Image (1985), Family Business (1988), and Coming to Terms (1991).

Her philanthropic work included service to Children's Hospital and the Children's Institute in Los Angeles, as well as the Albert Schweitzer hospital for children in Haiti.

Following her divorce from Murdoch, she married businessman William Mann in 1999; he died in 2017. In 2019, she married Florida real-estate developer Ashton de Peyster, who survives her. She is also survived by her three children, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Rupert Murdoch was subsequently married to Wendi Deng from 1999 to 2013, to Jerry Hall from 2016 to 2022, and to Elena Zhukova since June 2024.