When Rebekah Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International on Friday it marked an ignominious end to a spectacular career in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Brooks went from a secretary at British tabloid News of the World to top executive at News International in two decades.
Having grown up in the northwest part of England, Brooks moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, the former University of Paris. She worked for a French magazine and returned to Britain in 1988.
She worked as a secretary for a newspaper that went out of business soon after.
The following year, she took a secretarial job at News of the World, where she began her ascent in Murdoch’s empire.
Brooks became deputy editor of the Sun, another tabloid, in 1998. Two years later, she returned to News of the World and was named its editor. She was only 31 years old at the time, making her the youngest editor of any national newspaper in Britain.
Brooks thrived in the rough and tumble environment of the newsroom and her success turned heads. In 2003, she became the first woman to be named editor of the Sun.
Soon after, she appeared before a government committee on culture, media and sports – and said her publication had paid police officers for information.
Brooks, who forged a close relationship with the Murdoch family, was named top executive at News International two years ago.
She cultivated many contacts in public life, from entertainment to politics. In fact, Brooks and her second husband, Charlie, have socialized with British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha.
She might not be seeing the couple in the near future.
When she stepped down on Friday Brooks said she would devote herself to "correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about [her] record as a journalist, an editor and executive."
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