Murdoch’s mother side-swipes Wendi

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, the 99-year-old mother of the Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, does not appear to be greatly enamoured with her daughter-in-law, Wendi Deng (pictured with Murdoch). Over the weekend, to mark her forthcoming centenary - she turns 100 on February 8 - Elisabeth gave an interview to a number of Australian reporters during which she accused Wendi, Rupe's wife of nine years, of being a "designing woman".

Said Elisabeth: "I was devoted to Anna [Murdoch's second wife] and she and Rupert had the most wonderful marriage. I remember Rupert telling me they weren't happy and they were having counselling, and I said: 'Rupert, you are going to be terribly lonely and what will happen is that the first designing woman will come along and snap you up.' He said, 'Don't be ridiculous, mum. I'm too old for that' – but that's exactly what happened."

Dame Elisabeth's comments follow a flood of unsubstantiated rumours that have appeared on the internet recently suggesting that Wendi has been having an affair with one of the founders of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe. And today Wendi celebrates her 40th birthday with a lavish party in New York. Given her comments, it seems unlikely her mother-in-law will be on the guest list.