Rupert Murdoch is recovering at home after suffering a serious back injury. The media mogul was hospitalized after taking a fall while sailing earlier this month, Variety has confirmed.
The 86-year-old head of 21st Century Fox fell and was rushed off the boat by a helicopter, according to Vanity Fair, while vacationing on his son Lachlan’s yacht in the Caribbean earlier in January.
In a short note to senior executives, Murdoch said he would be working from home for a few weeks.
“I hope you all are having a great start to 2018. I suspect it has been better than mine,” he wrote late last week, noting he “suffered a painful back injury” as the result of a sailing accident. “While I am well on the road to recovery, I have to work from home for some weeks.” He told executives they could expect to hear from them via phone, email, and text.
A spokesman for 21st Century Fox declined to comment on Murdoch’s condition.
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Murdoch, who also has a hand in running Fox News Channel, is in the midst of selling his media empire’s film and television assets to Disney for $52.4 billion in a historic merger. He is also the executive chairman of News Corp., the publishing side of the Murdoch business that was split off from entertainment and media operation in 2013. His sons, James and Lachlan, are 21st Century Fox’s CEO and executive chairman, respectively.
In 2000, Murdoch was diagnosed with prostate cancer, from which he has fully recovered.
