The Joker Melted Her Face, Now Rupert Murdoch Is Divorcing Her

That's an interesting list of partners.

By Matthew Creith | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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Throughout much of pop culture, no one’s personal life may have been examined more thoroughly than that of fashion icon Jerry Hall. Hall seems to keep transforming her life, both professionally as a model and actor, to her social life where she has dated and married some of the most powerful men in the world. Once known by millions as the woman that Jack Nicholson’s Joker disfigures in Tim Burton’s Batman, some troubling news surfaced this week about Hall’s marriage.

jerry hall
Jerry Hall in Batman (1989)

As reported by Deadline, Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch are divorcing after six years of marriage. Hall and Murdoch do not share any children, although each has children from previous relationships. Hall was previously in a high-profile 22-year relationship with famed Rolling Stones musician Mick Jagger, and they have four children together. Fox media mogul Murdoch produced six children from three marriages before his relationship with Hall.

Texas native Jerry Hall became famous starting in the 1970s as a fashion model. While her relationship with Mick Jagger became her true identifier for much of her career, Fashion Model Directory confirms that Hall appeared on the cover of a variety of magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Harpers & Queen, Elle, Woman’s Day, the Australian version of Playboy, and Vogue. Hall moved into a career in acting starting with a small role as the sexy sister in the 1980 John Travolta film Urban Cowboy.

It was with Vogue that Jerry Hall parodied a similar character to herself as Alicia Hunt in Batman. Sharing most of her scenes with Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson, Alicia was the lover of Jack Napier who would later become the Joker. Hall’s character of Alicia mirrors Kim Basinger’s Vicki Vale, as Vale learns from Alicia’s mistakes and vows not to become one of the Joker’s latest “masterpieces.” The clip below shows Hall’s acting prowess as she goes toe to toe with Nicholson as a fashion model-type, leading her later to be disfigured by her tortured lover, forced to wear a porcelain mask for the rest of the film until her eventual suicide.

After the success of Batman, Jerry Hall took her talents to the stage. Auditioning for roles in the West End near her home with Jagger at the time in Greater London, Hall appeared in a revival of Bus Stop in 1990. After her split from Jagger, she played the pivotal role of Mrs. Robinson on the Broadway stage in an adaptation of The Graduate and then came back to the West End by the mid-2000s. According to Playbill, Hall broke a Guinness World Record for acting in the most musical appearances in one night, which she broke in February 2004 with six performances in front of 9,124 viewers.

Since 2016, Jerry Hall had been married to Rupert Murdoch, who she met in 2015. The Australian Murdoch is well established as the owner of News Corp, as well as the co-chair of Fox News in the United States. Much of the assets of his 21st Century Fox were sold in 2019 to Disney, except for Fox News. Murdoch is currently 91 years old and Hall is 65.