HBO
Warning: this article will contain spoilers for the most recent episode of HBO’s Succession.
It’s certainly no secret that Succession and the character of Logan Roy are loosely based on Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News empire. And if this is the first time you’re realizing that, welcome to reality.
The extent to which Succession takes inspiration from Murdoch’s late life is so extreme that the 91-year-old put a clause in a recent divorce settlement that prevented his ex-wife Jerry Murdoch from giving ideas to the writers of the series, according to a recent story in Vanity Fair.
“At the age of 91, Murdoch blew up his fourth marriage… Hall told friends she was blindsided. ‘Rupert and I never fought,’ she told people. There had been disagreements over his antiabortion views and some friction with the kids over Hall’s rules about masking and testing before they saw Murdoch, according to sources.”
“But Hall never felt Murdoch treated these as major issues. Hall and Murdoch finalized their divorce two months later. (One of the terms of the settlement was that Hall couldn’t give story ideas to the writers on Succession.)
The now 92-year-0ld Murdoch, however, has outlived the fictional Waystar Royco magnate, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 84 years old (according to the LA Times‘ mock obituary for him).
Season three of Succession is currently streaming on HBO Max and airing on HBO on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. The current fourth season of the series will be its last and will consist of ten episodes, with the series finale set to air on Sunday, May 28.
In addition to Cox, Succession stars Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun Alexander Skarsgård, Cherry Jones, Zoe Winters, Hope Davis, Justin Kirk, Stephen Root, J. Smith-Cameron, and more.
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