Rupert Murdoch files for divorce from pie-defending wife Wendi

Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire chairman of News Corp, filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, who famously defended him from a pie- throwing assailant.

A News Corp spokesman confirmed that Murdoch, 82, initiated the divorce proceeding, without elaborating. His wife couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Wendi Deng Murdoch, 37 years younger than her husband, made headlines in 2011 for physically defending him when he gave testimony at a UK government hearing over a hacking scandal. She leapt up and lunged at a man who had tried to throw a pie in Murdoch's face.

The Murdochs, who have two daughters, were married in 1999, weeks after Murdoch's divorce from his previous wife, Anna.

This would be Murdoch's third divorce. His first marriage, to Patricia Booker, ended in 1965. Two years later, he married a reporter at one of his newspapers, Anna Torv, and had three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James, all of whom have figured prominently at one point in the workings of his company.

Murdoch's net worth is $12.1 billion, making him the world's 79th richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.