Anna Maria dePeyster (; formerly Murdoch and Mann; 30 June 1944 – 17 February 2026) was a British and Australian journalist and novelist. She became the second wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was a director at News Corp.
Early life and education
Anna Maria Torv was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 June 1944, to Jakob Tõrv (anglicised Jacob Torv), an Estonian merchant seaman, and Sylvia Iris Bodfish, a Scottish drycleaner's shop assistant. Her parents had a drycleaning business in Glasgow, until they emigrated to Australia.
After the picnic park that her parents had opened in Blacktown went bankrupt, her mother left the family household. She has two brothers, Jaan and Hans Arvid, and one sister, Karin Elisabeth. Raised Catholic, she attended St Patrick's Catholic School in Blacktown and completed her secondary education at Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta, New South Wales. and also worked as a journalist for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. She later served on the board of directors of News Corporation.
Personal life and death
Torv was married to media mogul Rupert Murdoch from 1967 to 1999.
She and Murdoch had three children:
- Elisabeth Murdoch (born 1968)
- Lachlan Murdoch (born 1971)
- James Murdoch (born 1972)
According to The Independent, the people who in 1969 kidnapped and then killed Muriel McKay, wife of Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay, had originally intended to kidnap Anna Murdoch instead, and confusion arose when the McKays had made use of one of Murdoch's vehicles. She said in a 2001 interview that she had been entitled to some of the seven homes they had shared, but walked away from that. The trust gives the children born before this time (including stepdaughter Prudence, from Murdoch's first marriage) equal say in the fate of the businesses:
She remarried six months later, in December 1999, to William Mann, a financier who was CEO of Henry Mann Securities. The couple resided in The Hamptons, New York, in a house which they bought from philanthropist Yasmin Aga Khan in 2000. a descendant of the 17th century mayor of New York Abraham de Peyster, and became known as Anna Maria dePeyster.
She was the aunt of Australian actress Anna Torv, whose father is dePeyster's brother, the broadcaster Hans Torv.
DePeyster died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on 17 February 2026, at the age of 81.
Recognition
In 1998, then Anna Murdoch, she was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honorary order conferred by Pope John Paul II, for having supported the Archdiocesan Education Foundation and other Catholic causes in Los Angeles. Her husband Rupert was made a knight.
Bibliography
- In Her Own Image (Morrow, 1986)
- Family Business (Morrow, 1988)
- Coming to Terms (Fontana, 1992)