Rupert Murdoch and his third wife Wendi Deng.[File photo]

News Corp boss, Rupert Murdoch, has filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng. A spokesman for the media mogul says he made the decision after their 14 year marriage had "irretrievably broken down".

Murdoch met the Chinese-born Deng in 1997 at a cocktail party in Hong Kong. They were married two years later, just weeks after his second divorce. The couple have two daughters together, Grace and Chloe. They are said to have had a pre-nuptial agreement so the divorce is unlikely to lessen Murdoch’s grip on his media empire.

Murdoch's global media portfolio includes the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and Sky TV, and the 20th Century Fox movie studio. The divorce filing comes just two days before News Corp is to be split into two companies, one for its entertainment assets and the other for its publishing business. Murdoch is to be chairman of both firms.