Wendi Deng, you saucy minx, you’ve done it again! Global foreign policy watchdog Us Weekly is reporting that Deng, former wife of business titan Rupert Murdoch, may be dating Vladimir Putin, sinister president of Russia, former KGB agent, rumored abettor of war crimes, and leader of one of the most impressive man squads in the Eastern hemisphere.
In the unofficial contest between Murdoch and Deng over who would emerge victorious—meaning: richest, happiest, and dating the hottest partner—from their divorce, Murdoch threw down the gauntlet recently with his marriage to former supermodel Jerry Hall. Now Deng has responded with vigor: Oh, you’re going to marry one of Mick Jagger’s exes? Well, watch me literally. Date. Putin.
Deng, 47, was 85-year-old Murdoch’s third wife, often labeled a “trophy wife” or “tiger wife” given the age difference, and their marriage certainly threw a wrench into the Australian magnate’s famously fraught succession plans for News Corp, adding several more potential heirs to the already-crowded Murdoch line. In 2011 when an assailant tried to attack Murdoch with a pie, Deng smacked him out of the way, and the whole thing was captured on video, boosting Deng’s reputation among the kind of people who appreciate a woman who will get between custard and her man. But even this ride-or-die tribute wasn’t enough to save their marriage, and the pair divorced in 2014, amid rumors that Deng had a crush on Tony Blair. What can we say, Deng is a woman who knows what she likes: prominence on the world stage, give or take a bit of supervillainy.
And who even knew dating Putin was an available option? Ladies of the world scrolling through Tinder, enduring endless strings of disappointing dates—why didn’t you think of this first? Drop the zero and get with the … Putin. After all, he is a man who cuts an imposing figure, whether on horseback or in the Kremlin. And after a 2013 divorce of his own, Putin, 63, is very much available. Such is the genius of Wendi Deng: In the narrative arc of her romantic life, she had to find a way to top someone like Murdoch. In matters of the heart like these, a comparison to Sex and the City is usually apt: For the show’s last season, its producers were looking for a romance that was “bigger than Big.” The answer came in the form of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who played Carrie’s lover “the Russian.” Deng has followed suit, outdoing Murdoch with a Russian of her own, one with enough swagger to rival her former husband: Putin. So simple, so brilliant, so guaranteed to captivate romantics and gossipmongers everywhere. All we can say is well played, Ms. Deng, well played.
