New revelations over Rupert Murdoch's feud with Matthew Freud

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/dec/16/matthew-freud-rupert-murdoch

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The Mail on Sunday has made the running over the past month with stories about the busted friendship between Rupert Murdoch and Tony Blair.

In a follow-up yesterday, the paper revealed that the rocky relationship between Murdoch and his son-in-law, Matthew Freud, has also taken a further turn for the worse.

It told how Freud - who is married to Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth - banned Murdoch from his 50th birthday party last month because Blair was attending.

Previous stories reported that Murdoch had fallen out with Blair because he had had "multiple encounters" with Murdoch's then wife, Wendi Deng, without Murdoch's knowledge. Murdoch and Deng divorced three months ago.

What was striking about the latest story was the apparent willingness of Murdoch to allow the Mail on Sunday to be briefed. The paper was therefore able to quote "a source close to Mr Murdoch" who said: "Matthew and Rupert have no relationship and so none of this is a surprise."

And it further quoted "other sources close to Mr Murdoch" who accused Freud of cultivating Deng "to antagonise him." The sources also said the Murdoch-Freud battle had affected Murdoch's relationship with his daughter.

Freud did not let that pass. For me, the most telling paragraphs were those quoting Freud, who had clearly weighed his words carefully before sending his statement to the paper:

"It would be very sad if these opinions apparently anonymously attributed to my father-in-law are accurate. He has certainly said nothing to me personally.

I will be eternally grateful to Rupert Murdoch for producing Elisabeth, who is practically perfect in every way. Our views differ quite dramatically on a number of subjects professionally and I regret that this has caused my relationship with him to be sometimes conflicted.

But we have had good times as well as bad times, we both love his daughter and his grandchildren, if not always each other. I do not believe anything else is terribly important."

<em>If not always each other!</em> Now there's an understatement. Anyone who knows both Freud and Murdoch will know the truth of their dislike for each other.

From the off, when Freud began dating Elisabeth, Murdoch had no time for Freud, who was then much more willing to hold out the hand of friendship.

But there was no reciprocal warmth and both now appear content that their lengthy feud should be public knowledge. They are very different characters with very different views, most notably about politics and the media.

Freud has openly aired his disgust for the output of Fox News, for instance. As for UK press regulation, he has long favoured much tighter restrictions on newspapers than Murdoch would like.

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