Couple were officially married in small civil ceremony on Friday but reaffirmed vows at St Bride’s church in Fleet Street

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Jerry Hall has described her wedding to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch as “absolutely wonderful” after many of the UK’s most influential journalists, publishers and celebrities gathered for the ceremony in central London.

The couple were formally married on Friday, a week before Murdoch’s 85th birthday, in a small ceremony attended by a handful of close family members.

But the pomp and ceremony of a full white wedding was saved for a celebration at St Bride’s church on Saturday, with guests including Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Michael Caine and Rebekah Brooks, recently restored to the job of News UK’s chief executive.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest After the ceremony, Hall told waiting reporters she felt ‘absolutely wonderful’. Photograph: Tim Rooke/Rex/Shutterstock

As the couple emerged from the one-hour service shortly after midday, guests described the “glorious” ceremony that appeared to unify the couple’s extensive families.

Hall, dressed in an ice-blue silk Vivienne Westwood gown, believed to have cost about £8,000, was followed into the church on Saturday morning by the couple’s six daughters, Prudence, Elisabeth, Grace and Chloe Murdoch and Georgia May and Elizabeth Jagger.

The wider Jagger family was also in attendance, an indication of how close Hall is to her former partner Mick Jagger. Karis Jagger, Mick’s daughter by Marsha Hunt, and her two daughters were among the guests, as was his first wife, Bianca Jagger, and their daughter, Jade.



When asked by photographers how the service went, Hall said: “Absolutely wonderful, absolutely wonderful.”

She was pictured gazing adoringly at her new husband, the owner of some of the world’s biggest entertainment and publishing businesses, including Fox studios, Harper Collins and the Sun.



Up to 100 people attended the ceremony. The politicians Michael Gove and Priti Patel, and businessmen, including Vivi Nevo, the largest shareholder in Time Warner, came together in a show of financial and entertainment power.

The 84-year-old groom, giving the thumbs-up to the waiting press, and his son Lachlan were among the first to arrive at the church off Fleet Street, the former heart of British journalism – the demise of which was hastened by the media tycoon’s decision to move to Wapping.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Georgia May Jagger arrives for the wedding of Jerry Hall to Rupert Murdoch at St Bride’s church. Photograph: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

Hall arrived carrying a small bouquet of white flowers, matching her husband’s white buttonhole, as she walked into the ceremony with her son James.

Among the early arrivals were Hall’s friends from the entertainment world, including Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bob Geldof, and the Australian comedian Barry Humphries, and Alan Yentob, the former BBC executive. Also there were the playwright Tom Stoppard and the artist Tracey Emin.

Lord Rothschild, the owner of Spencer House, the aristocratic palace built for an ancestor of Princess Diana, was also at St Bride’s, as was the philosopher Alain de Botton, the photographer David Bailey and Bill Wyman, a former Rolling Stone.



Wyman’s wife, Suzanne, who was Hall’s witness at the private civil marriage on Friday, stepped out of the same car as Hall.



Murdoch’s daughters, Prudence, Elisabeth, Grace and Chloe, arrived moments later, followed by Hall’s daughters, Georgia May and Elizabeth, all of whom were bridesmaids, wearing different shades of blue.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jade Jagger arrives at Spencer House for the wedding reception of Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch. Photograph: Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images

The UK newspaper business was well represented by the Times editor, John Witherow, the Sun editor, Tony Gallagher, and the Daily Mail editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, and from New York, Robert Thomson, the former editor of the Times who is now chief executive of News Corporation.



Business interests were also represented by Charles Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse. A second Tony Gallagher, the owner of the construction empire AC Gallagher Holdings, also attended.

Penny Fowler, Rupert Murdoch’s niece, who introduced the couple to each other, and William Shawcross, Murdoch’s biographer, were also there.



Emin said she cried during the ceremony, while Shawcross described the service as “absolutely wonderful”. “He is very happy, he’s in love,” he said.

Humphries, better known as Dame Edna Everage, couldn’t resist a quip about the couple’s age. Asked what he would get the couple as a wedding gift he cracked: “I have lots of ideas, but they involve pharmaceuticals.”

More tight-lipped were the political and publishing elite, as Yentob, Gallagher and Gove declined to answer press questions. Other guests include Chelsea art dealer Ivor Braka, Annabel Brooks, sister of Rebekah Brooks’s husband, Charlie, and her husband, James Deardon.





Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chloe and Grace Helen Murdoch seen at their father Rupert’s home on the way to his wedding to Jerry Hall. Photograph: Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images

David Cameron and George Osborne were conspicuous by their absence. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, had been expected to attend but was not seen arriving at the Fleet Street church.

Tony Blair also did not attend. The former prime minister was once a close friend of Murdoch’s and is godfather to his daughter Grace, but the two fell out after Blair made a solo visit to see Murdoch’s previous wife, Wendi Deng, at their California ranch two years ago.

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Canon Alison Joyce officiated at the church event, assisted by Father Jonathan Morris from New York, who has done some work for Murdoch’s Fox News.

A spokesman for St Bride’s explained why a civil service had to be held on Friday. The media mogul and Texan model would have been forced to delay the marriage because of the paperwork required for ceremonies involving foreign couples, he said. Murdoch became a US citizen in 1985 to get around rules banning foreigners owning TV stations.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sarah Murdoch arrives for the wedding of Hall and Rupert at St Bride’s church on Fleet Street. Photograph: Neil P Mockford/GC Images

“They wanted to be married sooner than we could legally marry them,” said the spokesman.

A church spokeswoman told People magazine: “There would be no other problem with marrying them in the church – it was just literally time.



“You have to apply for special licences if you are an American and they just didn’t have time to fulfil all the legalities required by the Church of England. It was just very complicated logistically.”

It is Murdoch’s fourth marriage and technically Hall’s first, after her 1992 Bali wedding to Jagger was deemed legally void after an acrimonious high court battle.

Murdoch and Hall met last summer and rapidly established a strong chemistry. The groom showed no sign of wedding nerves. On Friday itwas business as usual as he tweeted about his favourite current subjects, the schisms in the Republican and Tory parties.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rebekah Brooks and Charlie Brooks arrive for the wedding at St Bride’s church. Photograph: Neil P Mockford/GC Images

He took a pop at the US statistician Nate Silver, who correctly called the last presidential election, saying Silver had “not such [a] good prediction record these days”. On Thursday night he took a swipe at the UK government for making “obviously false claims aimed at scaring voters” in the EU referendum debate.

Shortly after the official wedding on Friday, Murdoch tweeted: “No more tweets for ten days or ever! Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world.”