Murdoch and Freud wed

The newly weds posed for photographs

Media mogul Elisabeth Murdoch and PR boss Matthew Freud have married in what was billed as the media wedding of the year.

Murdoch, daughter of billionaire media tycoon Rupert, wed Freud in front of around 60 close friends in the chapel of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.

The happy couple wed at Blenheim Palace

Elizabeth's Murdoch's father Rupert, chairman of the media conglomerate News Corporation, gave away his daughter.

The newlyweds posed for photographs before returning to a reception for close friends and family, including actor Ross Kemp and his girlfriend, News of the World editor Rebekah Wade.

Freud owns Freud Communications, one of the UK's largest and and most powerful PR companies.

He is also the son of Liberal Democrat raconteur and bon viveur Clement Freud.

The Freud country home is China Corner in the grounds of Blenheim Palace.

A barbecue for the children and a second reception will be held on Saturday for around 150 guests.

Friction

The union of Murdoch and Freud is interesting on several counts.

From an industry point of view, the meeting of two powerful media clans leads naturally to speculation about future joint plans.

And the star-studded glitz and secrecy of the do was a guaranteed draw.

Murdoch married his former employee Deng

But interest was also being sparked about just how some family members would behave at the celebrations, in the light of recent public declarations.

Freud recently gave an interview to Vanity Fair magazine in which he accused his future father-in-law of having an old-fashioned attitude towards his daughter.

Rupert Murdoch's former wife Anna Murdoch Mann also recently gave a scathing interview in Australian Woman's Weekly about her ex-husband.

She accused him of causing the breakdown of their 32-year marriage by having an affair with former News Corporation executive Wendy Deng.

Murdoch and Deng later married and had a child.

Careers

As for Friday's bride and bridegroom, they have both been married before.

Both also have children by their first marriages, as well as their own nine-month-old daughter, Charlotte.

Their careers are also well-matched. Like Freud, Murdoch is establishing herself as a business woman in her own right.

She left her post as managing director of her father's Sky Networks last year.

Now she is boss of her own TV production company, Shine Entertainment - for which Freud could easily provide lots of a showbusiness talent.