Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has opened up for the first time publicly about his divorce from Wendi Deng, saying he was ''shocked'' to learn of reports that his ex-wife kept diary entries about former British prime minister Tony Blair.
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In a wide-ranging interview with Fortune magazine, the News Corporation chief revealed that he first learnt of the alleged encounters between his wife of 14 years and Mr Blair while he was on a trip to Australia.
Mr Murdoch, 83, said he immediately returned to the California ranch where Ms Deng and Mr Blair were alleged to have spent weekends in October 2012 and April last year, and questioned staff there about what had happened.
While not revealing what they told him, Mr Murdoch told Fortune that he filed for divorce the following week. Details of Ms Deng's alleged diary entries, in which she reportedly praised Mr Blair's ''good body and really really good legs [and] Butt'', were outlined earlier this year in Vanity Fair.
Asked by Fortune what he thought of Ms Deng's alleged diary entries, Mr Murdoch responded: ''I was shocked. But I didn't read them and I was not given them until after I had filed for divorce.
''I regret the whole Vanity Fair thing. I wish we just could have got divorced quietly. There is this view out there, and I'm sure you've heard it, 'Boy, Rupert, he makes a decision and he moves on'.
''Well, you know, everybody was talking about these things and never telling me anything. I don't really want to go into this. But then I was told two pretty circumstantial things about the ranch [where Ms Deng had been staying, according to Vanity Fair].
''I was in Australia. When I got back I naturally asked the staff and it opened up. That's the story. And then, you know, a week later I filed. As soon as I could find a lawyer.''
Mr Blair has always denied he had an affair with Ms Deng and there is no evidence to suggest that was the case. Mr Murdoch divorced Ms Deng, his third wife, in November. In the Fortune interview, believed to be Mr Murdoch's first extended media interview since 2009, he speaks candidly about splitting his newspaper conglomerate into two public companies and his attempt to repair frayed relationships with his grown children.
The billionaire said the past few years had been stressful.
''Oh, it's been stressful. I'm quite open about it,'' he says. ''I was reluctant to see the company split, and now I've got to say that I've been proved wrong. I think it's been a great success.''
Five months on from the divorce, Mr Murdoch said he was ''turning over a new leaf'' and had bought a new California ranch and an apartment in New York.
