Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, and dental hygienist turned conservative radio host Ann Lesley Smith, 66, have called off their wedding plans, American magazine Vanity Fair reported on Tuesday, April 4
.
.
Murdoch asked Smith for her hand on March 17, and announced her engagement less than a month ago, in a statement to one of his newspapers, the New York Post
.
The wedding was scheduled for this summer, less than a year after the billionaire Australian-born and US-born billionaire divorced his fourth wife, 66-year-old model Jerry Hall.
According to
Vanity Fair
, citing anonymous sources close to the businessman, the wedding plans have been suddenly interrupted due to a strong difference of opinion: Murdoch does not like Smith's evangelical ideas.
More information
Rupert Murdoch, power at 90 years old
Murdoch and Smith got engaged in New York on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, and made it public a few days later.
As Murdoch himself told the
New York Post
, he gave the bride-to-be a solitaire Asscher-cut diamond ring, which he "personally selected."
The businessman was enthusiastic about the relationship and related some of the details of his request: “He was very nervous.
He was afraid of falling in love, but he knew that it would be the last.
It had better be,” he declared, “I'm happy.”
He also assured that both were "looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together."
For her part, Ann Lesley Smith, widow of
country
singer Chester Smith, assured in the same publication that their relationship has been "a gift from God" for both of them.
“I have been a widow for 14 years.
Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman.
He worked for local newspapers, developed television and radio stations, and helped promote Univision.
I speak Rupert's language and we share the same beliefs,” she said.
“Approaching 70 means being in the last half.
I waited for the right moment and my friends are happy for me, ”explained Smith, who 14 years ago lost her second husband after suffering a heart attack.
Her first husband was the lawyer John B. Huntington, a scion of one of the families that built the first railroad in the United States.
The couple met, as revealed by Murdoch himself, in September 2022 at the Moraga vineyard, in Bel Air, California, and which is owned by the magnate – his new fiancée and one of her husbands also owned a vineyard.
Smith attended an event with more than 200 guests organized by the businessman in this enclave.
Murdoch explained in the same interview that he decided to ask for her phone number and call her to meet her two weeks after the party.
Last January the first photos of the two together were published, enjoying a vacation on the beaches of Barbados, according to an exclusive account of the British newspaper
The Daily Mail
.
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, reveals he is ENGAGED to Ann Lesley Smith, 66 https://t.co/SSaWRWAFXC pic.twitter.com/bc3MMMz2LJ
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) March 20, 2023
Rupert Murdoch has a fortune of more than 20,000 million dollars (about 18,239 million euros at current exchange rates), according to estimates by
Forbes
magazine .
His empire includes various media, including various tabloids such as
The Sun
in the United Kingdom and the
Daily Telegraph
in Australia, or
The Wall Street Journal
and
New York Post in the United States, as well as
Sky
channels.
News
and
Fox News
.
In addition to controlling the media, his love life has made him appear in them on more than one occasion: the businessman has been married four times and has six children.
His first marriage was to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, whom he divorced in the late 1960s.
His second wife was the journalist Anna Torv, with whom he was for 32 years, before divorcing in 1999. The agreement they reached established that he should pay her 1,274 million euros.
He later married one of his employees, Wendi Deng, 38 years his junior.
The couple were married 14 years.
What seemed like the businessman's last surprise occurred in March 2016, when he married the model Jerry Hall, who had previously been married to the
rolling stone
Mick Jagger, with whom he had four children.
The wedding was held in a century-old mansion in central London.
They then held a party before a hundred guests, including journalist Rebekah Brooks, musician Bob Geldof, actor Michael Caine and artist Tracey Emin.
Also present was James, one of four children Hall had with singer Mick Jagger.
Their divorce was announced in June 2022.
