Legal settlement ensures Lachlan Murdoch will take control of sprawling media portfolio after 94-year-old mogul’s death.

Rupert Murdoch’s family has reached a deal to end the years-long succession battle over the mogul’s media empire.

The deal, announced by News Corp on Monday, will see eldest son Lachlan Murdoch take control of a sprawling media portfolio that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and The Times.

The agreement helps ensure that Murdoch’s media properties will retain their conservative bent long after the 94-year-old patriarch’s death.

Under the settlement, Lachlan, his father’s chosen heir, and his two younger sisters, Grace and Chloe, will be beneficiaries of a new family trust that has a controlling stake in Fox Corporation and News Corp.

The deal stipulates that the trust will be in place until 2050.

Voting rights will rest “solely” with Lachlan, 54, who has served as chairman of News Corp and CEO of Fox since his father stepped down from running the businesses in 2023.

Lachlan’s three oldest siblings, James, Elizabeth and Prudence, will relinquish their stakes in an existing family trust, receiving an equal split of the share sales.

Under the deal, the three elder siblings will be subject to a “long-term standstill agreement” barring them from acquiring shares of News Corp and Fox Corporation and “taking certain other actions with respect to the companies.”

US media estimated the payout for the three siblings at about $3.3bn.

“News Corp’s board of directors welcomes these developments and believes that the leadership, vision and management by the Company’s Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, will continue to be important to guiding the Company’s strategy and success,” News Corp said in a statement.

The settlement caps a saga that has captivated political and media circles, and drawn comparisons with the plot of HBO’s award-winning drama Succession.

The legal fight over Rupert Murdoch’s succession plans erupted in 2023, when the Australian-born mogul sought to change the structure of the family trust to give full control of his companies to Lachlan, who is widely viewed as being more aligned with his father’s conservative views than his siblings, after his death.

James, Elizabeth and Prudence, who stood to inherit equal control of the companies along with Lachlan, took their father to court to block the bid.

In December, a probate court in the US state of Nevada ruled against the attempt to change the trust, describing it as a “carefully crafted charade” designed to “permanently cement” Lachlan Murdoch’s control.

US lawmakers have released copies of a “birthday book” given to the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, which includes a note allegedly signed by US President Donald Trump.

Along with the book, lawmakers also released a trove of documents that include Epstein’s personal address book and his will.

Lawyers for the estate sent documents to the House Oversight Committee after they were subpoenaed last month.

The release came hours after Democrats published the alleged note by Trump featuring a drawing of a woman’s body. The White House on Monday denied its authenticity and said the president “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”

When the Wall Street Journal published details of the alleged birthday note in July, Trump said it was “a fake thing” and denied writing it. Photos showing the note had not been published until this congressional release.

“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” he said, before launching legal action against the newspaper.

The president filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s reporters, publisher and executives, including News Corp’s owner Rupert Murdoch, seeking $10bn (£7.4bn) in damages.

In a statement along with the release of the documents by the House Oversight panel, Republican committee chairman James Comer accused Democrats on the panel of “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information” they received from the estate.

“Oversight Committee Republicans are focused on running a thorough investigation to bring transparency and accountability for survivors of Epstein’s heinous crimes and the American people,” he said.

The files released on Monday by the panel include a “birthday book” put together by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s British co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with the late financier to traffic girls for sex.

The panel also released Epstein’s will, a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and almost 30 years of entries in his personal address book.

The BBC is currently looking at the files released by the panel.

After Democrats released the initial note on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation”.

“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” Leavitt added.

The signed note posted on X features several lines of text, with the final line reading: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

In the post with the image, the Democrats on the Oversight Committee wrote: “Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!”

The House Oversight Committee last month issued a legal summons for the executors of Epstein’s estate to produce a number of documents, including a birthday book which contains the note purportedly from Trump.

The newspaper’s publisher Dow Jones said at the time it had “full confidence in the rigour and accuracy of our reporting”.

On Monday, Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said: “President Trump called the Epstein investigation a hoax and claimed that his birthday note didn’t exist.

“Now we know that Donald Trump was lying and is doing everything he can to cover up the truth.”

On X, White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted several images of Trump’s signature on Monday.

“Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook, it’s not his signature. DEFAMATION!” Budowich wrote.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell created the birthday book for the financier in 2003.

It contained submissions from various Epstein acquaintances, including a note allegedly bearing the name of Trump, who was then his friend.

Trump and Epstein were friendly for years, but the president has said he fell out with him in the early 2000s after the financier poached employees from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Epstein was first criminally indicted in 2006 in Florida on a state felony charge of solicitation of prostitution. He died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.