Wendi Deng Murdoch

Wendi Deng was born in Jinan, Shandong, and raised in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Her birth name was Deng Wen'ge, (), meaning "Cultural Revolution". She has two older sisters, and a brother, When she was a teen she changed her given name to "Wendi". She attended Xuzhou First Secondary School (a.k.a. Xuzhou No.1 Middle School). She became a competitive volleyball player. While she was in high school, her father relocated to Guangzhou, where he was a factory director where she studied economics and was among the top scoring students. She obtained a BA in Economics from California State University at Northridge and an MBA from Yale University. ==Career and public profile==

Upon graduation from Yale in 1996, Deng met Bruce Churchill. At that time, Churchill oversaw finance and corporate development at the Fox TV branch in Los Angeles. He offered Deng an internship at News Corp subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong, which developed into a full-time junior executive position. Though a junior employee, she took a role in working to plan Star TV's operations in Hong Kong and China and helped to build up Chinese distribution for Star's Channel V music channel. Within one year, she became a vice president. She led the Murdoch family's Chinese internet investments and helped form business links with China for high-speed video and internet access. In 2009, Deng co-founded the online platform Artsy with Carter Cleveland and Dasha Zhukova, which has since become one of the top online places for buying, viewing and learning about art. Other investors include Peter Thiel, François Pinault and Eric Schmidt. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a movie about two footbound children in Qing dynasty China, directed by Wayne Wang. The film won the Golden Angel Award at the Chinese American Film Festival. She also produced the Netflix documentary Sky Ladder directed by Academy Award-winning Kevin MacDonald, showcasing the art of Cai Guo-Qiang. The film premiered in January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival. Sotheby's hosted a private reception and screening of the film in October 2016 before the film's Netflix debut. Deng is a collector of Chinese contemporary art. She has also invested in tech start-ups including Oscar Health, Snapchat, Uber, and Warby Parker. == Personal life ==

and Deng in 2011|alt= Jake and Joyce Cherry hosted Deng in their home during her studies in the United States. Later, Jake Cherry left his wife, on board his yacht Morning Glory, less than three weeks after the finalization of his divorce from his second wife, Anna Murdoch (née Torv). The couple had two daughters: Grace (born 2001) and Chloe (born 2003). Tony Blair is Grace Murdoch's godfather. In June 2013, Rupert Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng, citing irreconcilable differences. On July 19, 2011, Deng counterattacked Jonathan May-Bowles (comedian Jonnie Marbles) after he threw a pie at her husband Rupert Murdoch while he was giving testimony before a British parliamentary committee considering the News International phone hacking scandal. May-Bowles was subsequently sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment. In February 2014, The Daily Telegraph and Vanity Fair alleged that Deng might have had an affair with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. In early 2018, The Wall Street Journal published a story suggesting that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, longtime friends of Deng, were warned by US intelligence agencies that she may be using her relationship with them to further the goals of the Chinese government. Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, posited that the article was an attempt by Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Wall Street Journal, to spread the idea that "Wendi is a Chinese spy" in the aftermath of their acrimonious divorce. , Deng was living in New York City with her two daughters. == References ==