Rupert Murdoch to Marry Again, Announces Engagement to 66-Year-Old
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is planning on tying the knot again, he said in a recent interview with the New York Post, where the 92-year-old admitted to being nervous while popping the question.
“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love—but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch said.
Murdoch will marry 66-year-old Ann Lesley Smith, a former San Francisco police chaplain. Smith’s late husband, Chester Smith, was a media executive and country singer.
The couple met during a gathering at Murdoch’s vineyard in Bel Air, California.
“I’m a widow 14 years. Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman. Worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote Univision. So I speak Rupert’s language. We share the same beliefs,” Smith told the New York Post.
She has been married twice.
The proposal is unlikely to affect existing business structures. Murdoch controls the media empire through a Nevada-based family trust which holds an approximate 40 percent stake in voting rights of each company, according to Reuters.
According to the New York Post, the couple is expected to marry in late summer.
This will be Murdoch’s fifth marriage after divorcing ex-wife Jerry Hall seven months ago. Murdoch was married to the model and actress for 6 years.
In addition to Hall, Murdoch was married to Wendi Deng from 1999 to 2013. Before that, he was married to Anna Maria Torv—mother of Lachlan Murdoch—from 1967 to 1999 and Patricia Booker from 1956 to 1967, Variety reported.
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Murdoch is the executive chairman of News Corp., a mass media conglomerate that includes The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, book publisher HarperCollins, and numerous other ventures in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
After selling most of Fox’s movie studio, National Geographic Networks, and FX to Disney for $71.3 billion in March 2019, Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch now runs the Fox Corp’s cable news, business, and sports networks, Forbes reported.
Born in Australia, where Murdoch inherited a newspaper from his father at age 22, he has now become one of the most prominent and influential media moguls in the world.
Forbes estimates the Murdoch family to be worth $17.1 billion currently.
Murdoch and Smith are expected to spend time between California, Montana, New York, and the UK.
