It's a scoop from the
New York Post
: Rupert Murdoch, 92, is getting married... for the fifth time.
The lucky winner is none other than Ann Lesley Smith, 66, a former San Francisco police chaplain.
The couple have only known each other for a few months but are already moving up a gear.
The $17.3 billion media mogul proposed in New York City on March 17 on St. Patrick's Day with an Asscher-cut diamond engagement ring , which he personally chose.
"I was very nervous," he told socialite columnist Cindy Adams (92, too).
I dreaded falling in love but I knew it would be my last time.
It would be better."
On video, celebrity couples who last
Meeting in the vineyards
Since then, everyone has been trying to find out more about the mysterious sweetheart of the Australian-American businessman.
Especially since Rupert Murdoch only divorced his fourth wife, American model Jerry Hall, in August 2022, after six years of living together.
At the
Post
, the press magnate gave some details on the birth of his romance with his new fiancée.
We learn in particular that their meeting dates back to September, in the Moraga vineyard in Bel Air, California, which belongs to … Rupert Murdoch.
“She [Ann Lesley] and her husband (since deceased,
Ed.
) also owned a vineyard and worked in the wine business, he recalls.
Last year, when there were 200 people in my vineyard, I met her and we talked a little.
A few words are enough.
The billionaire immediately fell in love.
"Two weeks later, I called her."
Those who think of Ann Lesley Smith as a “diamond digger” might be wrong.
Before Rupert Murdoch, the American had a busy and quite worldly life.
A former San Francisco police chaplain, she is the widow of a businessman and country music star, Chester Smith, who died in 2008 at the age of 78 from a heart attack.
overnight multi-millionaire
Before Chester Smith, Ann Lesley Smith had a first marriage with a wealthy lawyer, John B. Huntington.
He is 47 years old and comes from one of California's pioneer railroad families;
she is 28 years old, graduated from Idaho State University and is beginning a career as an oral hygienist.
Their union makes Ann Lesley Smith a multi-millionaire overnight.
At the time, she “easily” spent $65,000 a month on clothes and spent her days enjoying her life.
“My life was a lot of fun.
John loved cars and we had a stable full of all kinds of cars – exotic Ferraris and everything,” she told the channel, as reported by the Daily
.
Only, this marriage turns to the drama.
John starts drinking, excessively.
And becomes violent with his wife.
"He abused me physically, mentally, emotionally," says Ann Lesley Smith.
The couple ends up separating and the American finds herself homeless, living on social assistance.
“I really wanted to kill myself;
my life sucked so much,” she later told CBN.
“Everything was too much.
I thought if I drove my car really fast into someone else's, I could end it.
So I was driving recklessly.
I wanted it to happen, [but] it didn't work out."
To make ends meet, Ann Lesley Smith multiplies odd jobs and modeling contracts.
It was during one of these model jobs that her life changed (again).
An event planner takes him to a cafe and gives him a copy of a religious book (
The Four Spiritual Laws, editor's note
).
The young woman takes him home "reluctantly" and there is a revelation.
“I started walking with God and the things of the world just seemed useless to me.”
Her faith leads her on the path to her second husband, Chester Smith.
The couple met while Ann Lesley Smith was hired by the San Francisco police as a volunteer chaplain.
Position that she is leaving soon to start a new career as
"A gift from God"
With Chester Smith, everything is going well… Until his sudden death in 2008. Widowed, Ann Lesley Smith no longer appears as a couple.
It was without counting Rupert Murdoch, with whom she ended up falling in love.
"For both of us, it's a gift from God," enthused the future Mrs. Murdoch in the columns of the
New York Post
.
“We are both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” adds the tycoon, already married four times and father of six children.
The wedding ceremony is scheduled for late summer.
After which, the "young" spouses should divide their time between California, the United Kingdom, Montana and New York.
And five!
Rupert Murdoch, whose fortune is estimated by
Forbes
at more than 17 billion dollars, owns hundreds of media, notably in the United States with companies that control the influential chain Fox News, the economic daily The
Wall Street Journal
and the right-listed New York tabloid,
New York Post
.
He is also the boss, in the United Kingdom, of the
Sun
and the
Times
of London, and of newspapers in Australia.
The billionaire was first married from 1956 to 1967 to Patricia Booker, an Australian air hostess, then for more than 30 years, until 1999, to a British journalist, Anna Mann: the latter touches more than a billion dollars after their divorce, according to the press at the time.
He married, a few days later, a businesswoman of Chinese origin, a graduate of Yale University, Wendi Deng, until their divorce in New York in 2013. Then, in 2016, he said "yes" to Jerry Hall, from whom he officially divorced in August 2022. This time, he announced it: his marriage to Ann Lesley Smith will be his last.
