Earlier this year, American journalist McKay Coppins shared a rare and wide-ranging interview with James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s second-oldest son, who is often portrayed as a bitter rival to his older brother, Lachlan. Coppins speaks to Guto Harri, former Communications Director for Rupert Murdoch’s News International, about what he learned.
James Murdoch was seated at a conference table in a Manhattan law office in March 2024 when he realised he was witnessing the final dissolution of his family. Three months earlier, his father, Rupert, had told James and his sisters that he was rewriting the family trust to grant his elder son, Lachlan, full control of the Murdoch empire after his death, rather than splitting it equally among his four oldest children. The amendment was part of a secret plan that the patriarch’s allies had code-named ‘Project Family Harmony.’
