Wendi Deng , a businesswoman and mother of two is perhaps best known for the slap that protected her media mogul husband , Rupert Murdoch . In July 2011 , Deng lunged at a protester who was advancing on Murdoch with a shaving cream pie during a UK parliamentary hearing on allegations of phone hacking by Murdoch 's media company . The Twitterverse lit up with chatter about the incident and bloggers in her native China largely applauded her . But that one instinctive , protective swipe could not completely remove suspicions about the 44-year-old woman 's marriage to 82-year-old Murdoch . So often , the age difference , his riches and her beauty were mentioned alongside each other . Deng first made waves when she married Murdoch in 1999 , shortly after he divorced his wife of more than 30 years , Anna Torv Murdoch Mann . Now Murdoch is divorcing Deng . The couple have two daughters , Chloe and Grace , the youngest of his six children . The couple met at a cocktail party shortly after Deng graduated with an MBA from Yale , Murdoch told CCTV 's `` Dialogue '' in 2011 . She went to work as an intern in Hong Kong at Star Television , a satellite television service he bought in 1993 . By then , Murdoch 's holdings under News Corp. included the Sunday Times , The Australian , News International , the New York Post , the Times of London , 20th Century Fox and Fox Broadcasting . Deng served as his interpreter during a tour of China , he said . On CCTV , Murdoch recalled the days when he pursued Wendi and his efforts to get her to marry him . `` I fell in love with her , and I asked her . She said no , and it took a long time to persuade her , '' he said . Murdoch 's media empire . They married after he finalized his divorce from his second wife . Deng has come a long way , coming from a small town in China , the daughter of a poor factory engineer . Her marriage to Murdoch was n't her first . She married the man who , with his then-wife , sponsored her for a student visa in the United States during the late 1980s . She eventually secured a `` green card '' to stay permanently in the United States , but her first marriage was short-lived . Despite her moments in the spotlight and her pre-marriage career in Murdoch 's empire , not much is known about Deng . She sits on the board of advisers at the Yale School of Management , her alma mater . She is listed as a co-founder of Big Feet Productions and is also co-producer of the movie , `` Snow Flower and the Secret Fan . ''
Wendi Deng rose from humble beginnings to marry one of the world 's richest men . She married Rupert Murdoch in 1999 and they have two children . Deng worked for Murdoch in Asia before their marriage . She was born in In China and graduated with an MBA from Yale .