It pays to marry—and divorce—Rupert Murdoch. In June the 82-year-old billionaire and News Corporation owner announced that he and his wife of fourteen years, Wendi Deng, were divorcing. According to Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the ex-couple settled the terms of their separation in a Manhattan court today, one of which gives 44-year-old Deng the couple’s $44 million Upper East Side penthouse, which overlooks the lower half of Central Park.

Flanked by their lawyers, Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch attended a hearing at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan to present their settlement before a judge. After the formalities, the couple shook hands with their lawyers and embraced briefly. [...]

As part of the settlement, Mrs. Murdoch will be awarded the Fifth Avenue apartment the couple bought in 2005 for $44 million, people familiar with the situation say.

Given the forum—Murdoch considers the Journal one of his empire’s crown jewels—there’s almost certainly more to this story. (Such as Murdoch’s brand new massage therapist girlfriend. Oh, and the divorced couple’s unrelenting cruelty toward the household help.)

But it seems like Murdoch absorbed the lesson of employee Bill O’Reilly, whose 2011 divorce became so contentious that it reached an appellate court, where details of his and his ex-wife’s Catholic annulment became public. Easier to pay money now than risk embarrassment later.

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