MEDIA TYCOON RUPERT Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall announced their engagement today following a four-month romance.
The news was revealed in a marriage notice published by the Times newspaper in London, which reported that the couple got engaged over the weekend in Los Angeles.
As you might have heard, this will be Murdoch’s fourth marriage and technically the first for Hall, who was previously in a long-term relationship with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
Jagger and Hall got hitched in a ceremony on the Indonesian island of Bali in 1990, but a long legal battle prompted by their split nine years later ended in a court ruling that the union was legally invalid.
Legally meaningless
It emerged that the ceremony – which was officiated by a Hindu priest who slit the throat of a chicken and spilled its blood to purify the wedding venue, according to the Guardian – was never recognised in Indonesia.
When Hall began divorce proceedings in 1999, Jagger released a public statement saying they were never officially married.
The High Court in London reached the same conclusion several months later after an Indonesian report showed the couple had failed to register their marriage, as legally required, according to reports from the time.
The judge accepted that the wedding was not valid under either Indonesian or English law, and declared it null and void.
Hall and Jagger had been in a relationship for 21 years and raised four children together.
The former model’s romance with Murdoch, who is 25 years her senior, was made public in October when they were pictured together at the Rugby World Cup final in London.
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