Rupert Murdoch's Ex-Wife's Crush On Tony Blair

Mail Online has the dirt:

The Mail on Sunday can now reveal fresh details about the controversy that has rocked Westminster.

A note written by Ms Deng is said to describe in detail her feelings before her break-up with 82-year-old Mr Murdoch, and, crucially, her feelings for Mr Blair.

A well-placed source in London said the note, found earlier this year, suggested Ms Deng ‘had warm  feelings’ for Mr Blair, comparable to a ‘crush’.

Furthermore, Mr Blair was humiliated when he was forced to scrap plans to attend the prestigious Sun Valley conference in the U.S. in July, attended by media and political moguls such as Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr Blair was given top billing, but at the last minute was told by the organisers not to turn up when fellow guest Mr Murdoch objected.

The rebuff came less than a month after Mr Murdoch filed for divorce from Chinese-born Ms Deng.
The divorce was finalised late last month.

The snub was a bitter personal blow for Mr Blair, who had been a regular guest at Sun Valley. He attended the 2007 gathering just two weeks after leaving Downing Street.[...]

Intriguingly, the media conference that Mr Blair was banned from took place in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, almost exactly a month after Mr Murdoch filed for divorce on June 13.

When the guest list was published on July 2, ‘the Rt Hon Tony Blair’ was named on it, along with Mr Gates, Mr Zuckerberg, then  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other media and political luminaries.

But as a smiling  Mr Murdoch and his two sons, who both work for his giant News Corp media company, arrived for the week-long event, Mr Blair was nowhere to be seen.

Mr Murdoch had told the organisers, Allen and Co, a New York-based private investment bank, that he would refuse to go if Mr Blair turned up.

Mr Murdoch is a long-standing business associate and personal friend of Herb Allen, the chairman of Allen and Co.

Mr Allen’s right-hand man Stan Shuman sat on the News Corp board for more than decade.

Mr Blair was asked to withdraw and he agreed.

Smiling Rupert Murdoch, with his sons James, right, and Lachlan, left, at the Allen and Co conference in Idaho's Sun Valley Resort in July.