Murdoch 'naive enough to believe what he reads'

In an outburst sure to delight media commentators around the world, the future son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch has attacked the businessman for being misogynistic, old-fashioned and naive enough to believe what he reads in the papers.

The attack has been made by Matthew Freud, the fiancé of Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, in an interview to be published this week by Vanity Fair magazine. As a celebrated PR agent, who has just bought back the company he founded in a £10m deal, Mr Freud would not have been unaware that his carefully chosen words would gain wide coverage and infuriate the News International boss.

Significantly, the interview was conducted with both Mr Freud and Ms Murdoch, and seems to show that Rupert Murdoch's daughter, the former Sky Television managing director, apparently did not protest at the comments being made about her father.

Mr Freud and Ms Murdoch have a child and are engaged, even though they did split up for a time last year. Both have been married before.

Rupert Murdoch has long been thought not to approve of Matthew Freud; but neither has spoken publicly about the other before. Now the coolness between them is evident.

Mr Freud tells the interviewer that he had something of a "black mark against my name" after he encouraged Ms Murdoch to appear in several glossy magazines. "There was this picture of her in a beautiful black dress with an arm over her head [and well] misogyny is too strong, but Rupert has an old-fashioned attitude [towards women]," he says.

A few months later her brother Lachlan, who is widely seen as the heir apparent to the Murdoch media empire, was voted sexiest man in Australia and photographed from the waist up. "Rupert didn't have a problem with that – Lachlan's the prince regent," he says.

Mr Freud also makes a reference to a magazine article about London power couples who are the most frequent party-goers. According to Vanity Fair, Mr Murdoch believed the article made his daughter look frivolous.

"Liz and I were No 2 and No 3 on the list," said Mr Freud. "But that was parties we got invited to, not necessarily went to. Here's the weird thing about the Murdoch family. They believe what they read in the papers."