The Succession Memo: How Logan Roy’s death derailed Rupert Murdoch
Ask even the most casual TV viewer which famous family the series Succession is based on, and they’ll probably be able to tell you it’s the Murdochs.
Premiering in 2018, this was a prestige drama about an ageing conservative media mogul whose refusal to hand over the reins has splintered his family and triggered an all-encompassing battle for power. Sound familiar?
Murdoch’s children began discussing the PR strategy for their father’s death after watching the season three episode of Succession in which Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the patriarch of the family, dies. Credit: Marija Ercegovac
The not-so-subtle nod to Rupert Murdoch was a crucial part of the HBO show’s meta-appeal, with fans rejoicing in discovering similarities between the fictional Roy family and their real-life counterparts. But as much as art imitated life in Succession, occasionally, life imitated art right back.
According to two recent stories by The Atlantic and The New York Times, which examined Murdoch’s unsuccessful attempt in a Nevada probate court to alter the fate of an irrevocable family trust, Murdoch’s children began discussing the PR strategy for their father’s death after watching the season three episode of Succession in which Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the patriarch of the family, dies.
During the episode, Logan’s sudden passing triggers a power vacuum. With no known successor named, his children scramble to figure out how to save face and the company. The episode aired in April 2023. At that time, Lachlan Murdoch was being groomed to take over the family business while his siblings, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James, were out of favour.
According to The New York Times writers Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, who gained access to a 96-page sealed court document, the plot twist hit close to home for Elisabeth Murdoch, the eldest child from Rupert’s relationship with former wife Anna.
Rupert Murdoch with children Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.Credit: Jamie Brown
“The fictional chaos that ensued sent Liz and her representative to the family trust, Mark Devereux, into a panic,” write Mahler and Rutenberg.
According to the writers, Devereux, a self-described Succession addict, watched the episode once, and Liz watched it twice, but both were equally mortified. “I thought this is exactly, exactly the thing we should be avoiding, because that is chaotic.”
The on-screen drama inspired Devereux to create the so-called Succession Memo, a document intended to prevent a real-life repeat of the Roy family situation. While Lachlan Murdoch was firmly entrenched with his father, the Succession Memo ensured the other three siblings would present a united front following Rupert’s death.
The death of Logan Roy went to air in April 2023, and by September, James, Liz, and Prudence were meeting in a London hotel to catch up and begin discussing their plans.
After establishing the Succession Memo, the three siblings would ultimately be successful in stopping their father’s bid to install Lachlan as the controlling figure of the family trust.
In December, the Nevada probate court hearing the case found that Murdoch had acted in “bad faith” in his effort to amend the irrevocable trust, which divides control of the company equally among Murdoch’s four oldest children – Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence – after his death.
The existence of a Succession Memo is the latest example of the strangely symbiotic relationship between the HBO drama and the family who inspired it.
Rupert Murdoch with sons Kendall and Roman … I mean Lachlan and James in 2002.Credit: Bloomberg
Rupert Murdoch has consistently claimed he has “never watched” the series, while James Murdoch, in his interview with The Atlantic journalist McKay Coppins, admitted to trying – and failing – to finish the first episode.
“James had never watched the series; he’d tried the first episode but found it too painful,” writes Coppins. “But other members of the Murdoch clan were obsessed with the show; certain scenes and storylines seemed uncannily true to life.” In fact, it emerged, James prefers Shogun.
It has long been rumoured that members of the Murdoch family leaked Succession storylines to the writers of Succession. Coppins explains that, in typical Succession style, each of the siblings seemed to suspect one another.
Who was saying what and to whom might be up for debate, but there remains little doubt those within the Murdoch operation were nervous. According to Gabriel Sherman’s Vanity Fair long read, The Trials of King Rupert, following Rupert’s divorce from model Jerry Hall in 2022, he included a gag order as part of her settlement.
“One of the terms of the settlement was that Hall couldn’t give story ideas to the writers on Succession,” writes Sherman.
While Succession departed our screens in 2023, it appears the real-life Murdoch drama is set to drag on. But at least we now know that we weren’t alone in watching the Roy family tear each other apart; it turns out the Murdochs were watching along closely too.
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at thomas.mitchell@smh.com.au or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.
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