Media mogul Rupert Murdoch filed divorce papers from his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng, on Thursday, a spokesman confirmed to ABC News.He said the court filing describes that their relationship had broken down irretrievably in the last six months.

Deng grew up in Guangzhou, where her father was a factory manager. An exceptional student, she enrolled at Guangzhou Medical College at the age of 16 but withdrew after Jake and Joyce Cherry — an American couple working in China — agreed to sponsor her student visa to study at California State University, Northridge.

At 19, Deng moved in with the Cherry family in California. Soon after her arrival, the Cherrys' marriage began to sour, and Joyce asked Deng to move out when she grew suspicious of her husband's relationship with their new tenant. Jake, who admitted that he was infatuated with Deng, moved out too — and married Deng in 1990. They divorced two years and seven months later, by which point Deng had secured a green card to live and work in the U.S. indefinitely.

Deng finished in the top 1% of students at Cal State and went on to study at the Yale School of Management. She graduated in 1996. Afterward, she managed to turn an internship at Star TV, News Corp.’s Asian satellite service based in Hong Kong, into a full-time job. In 1998 she began acting as an interpreter for Murdoch on his business trips to China. Murdoch separated from his second wife of 31 years in May 1998 and began holding hands with Deng in public a few months later.

Murdoch married Deng on June 25, 1999, just 17 days after he finalized his divorce from his second wife. Deng gave up her job at Star TV and relocated to New York City.

Shortly after Murdoch and Deng married, the tycoon told Vanity Fair that it would be inappropriate for Deng to work at News Corp. and that she kept herself busy by “working on decorating the new apartment in Manhattan."? “We’ll just have to resolve that somehow," Murdoch added.

Part of that resolution was to have children. Deng gave birth to Grace in 2001 and to Chloe two years later.

Given her fluency in Mandarin and English, and her knowledge of the Chinese media landscape, Deng has advised News Corp. on numerous deals in China. In 2000, the Guardian reported that Deng, working closely with her stepson James Murdoch, initiated or advocated Chinese Internet investments amounting to at least $35 million — a figure that has likely grown since then. Besides helping with translation, Deng has been known to ease any tension between the Murdochs and their Chinese clients.

Deng has more than 124,000 followers on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site. Her page includes plenty of pics of Deng with friends like Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and Hugh Jackman. She frequently refers to Murdoch as her "hubby."

When Murdoch took his seat at the July 19 parliamentary hearing, Deng patted his back and poured him a glass of water. Early in his testimony, she told him to stop banging on the table. Despite being the one to usually give orders, not receive them, Murdoch obeyed.

She may have been wearing pink Chanel, but that didn't stop Deng from leaping out of her seat when an activist attempted to smear her husband's face with cream. Her graceful leap and subsequent swipe at the attacker harked back to her days as a teenage volleyball player in China.

Plenty of critics have described Deng as a skilled manipulator of men and a social climber. But in the aftermath of the phone-hacking inquiry and her leap to protect her husband, there has been a growing awareness that she may really have his best interests at heart.

The shaving-cream incident has made Deng a modern-day folk hero in China. "When you marry, you should marry a Chinese woman. In times of danger, she will act," one blogger wrote. "Her reactions were super-fast! She walks away as the only hero."

Many of Deng's fans and detractors believe she'll stick by Murdoch's side. But they disagree on her motives. "Wendi Murdoch may be even smarter than Rupert Murdoch.She is no dummy. She is a consigliere to him, she has a self-interest. She is very protective of him and very involved."