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| Firm friends: Former PM Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch at a Washington gala in 2008. Murdoch's News International has been embroiled in the recent phone hacking scandal. |
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Tony Blair is godfather to Rupert Murdoch's daughter and attended her baptism on banks of the River Jordan
The Daily Mail
Sun September 4, 2011
Tony Blair is godparent to one of Rupert Murdoch's children, it emerged last night.
The pair are reportedly on such friendly terms that the former prime minister attended the baptism of Mr Murdoch's two youngest daughters.
Their seemingly intimate relationship is disclosed in an interview in the October issue of Vogue magazine with the tycoon's wife Wendi, 42.
The magazine reported that Mr Blair travelled to the banks of the Jordan to witness the religious ceremony in March last year.
At the time of the baptism, Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were named as godparents to Grace, nine, and Chloe, eight.
But now it has emerged that Mr Blair is also a godfather to Grace, as is Rupert Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan.
The ceremony, hosted by Queen Rania of Jordan, took place at the spot where Jesus is said to have been baptised.
The revelation will prove controversial for Mr Blair, given the phone-hacking scandal currently surrounding News International.
His ties to the Murdoch family could provide some explanation for his reluctance to criticise the media empire over the affair.
It has been reported that he even asked Gordon Brown to pressurise Labour MP Tom Watson into halting his investigation into the scandal - although Mr Blair's spokesman denied this.
The News International newspapers backed New Labour through three general elections while Mr Blair was its figurehead - but switched to the Conservatives after Mr Brown took over in 2007.
The Vogue article describes Mr Blair as one of Mrs Murdoch's 'closest friends' and claims he arrived at the ceremony 'garbed in white'.
In the interview, given before her 80-year-old husband addressed a Commons select committee in July, Mrs Murdoch said the phone-hacking scandal had taken its toll on the couple and that she had not slept for weeks due to stress.
She added: 'Of course, as Rupert's wife, I think it's unfair on him to be going through this.
'I worry about him being alone. He has no PR people advising him. He tells me not to come but I'm flying to London for the hearing. I want to be with him.'
As it turned out, Mrs Murdoch did accompany her husband to the hearing, and became famous for defending him from an intruder who tried to attack him with a foam pie.
Last night, Mr Blair's spokesman refused to comment on the report, which was not directly attributed to Mrs Murdoch in Vogue.
Mrs Murdoch rarely gives interviews but was speaking to publicise a new film which she has produced, called Snow Flower And The Secret Fan.
In total, Rupert Murdoch has one daughter by his first wife, three children from his second wife, and the two youngest daughters with Wendi.
He married Wendi on his yacht in 1999, just 17 days after his divorce from Anna, his wife of 31 years and mother of Lachlan, James and Elisabeth.
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