Rupert Murdoch Is Engaged to Ann Lesley Smith


Fifth time is apparently the charm for Rupert Murdoch.

The billionaire confirmed the news that he proposed to girlfriend Ann Lesley Smith to Page Six’s legendary gossipmonger Cindy Adams. Murdoch, who has owned the columnist’s employer, the New York Post, since 1976, commemorated both Saint Patrick’s Day and his birth month by asking Smith to be his wife with an Asscher-cut solitaire diamond that he personally selected, explaining that he chose the date because “I’m one-fourth Irish.” He added, “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love—but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy.”

Smith, who was formerly the San Francisco police chaplain and wife of the late country singer and TV executive Chester Smith, told the outlet that their relationship, “For us both, it’s a gift from God. We met last September.” She continued, “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. In perspective, it’s not my first rodeo. Getting near 70 means being in the last half. I waited for the right time. Friends are happy for me.”

Murdoch went on to describe how the couple met at his Moraga vineyard in Bel Air, California, saying, “She and her husband also owned a vineyard and had been in the wine business. Last year when there was 200 people at my vineyard, I met her and we talked a bit. Two weeks later I called her.” He concluded, “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together.” The wedding is set to take place late this summer and the bride’s friends, as well as a personal shopper, have already started feverishly searching stores for the perfect gown. The couple will split their time between California, the UK, Montana, and New York.

Murdoch is father to six children from his four previous marriages. He had 64-year-old newspaper executive Prudence MacLeod with his first wife, flight attendant and model Patricia Booker. The pair wed in Australia in 1956 when Murdoch was just 25 years old and divorced 11 years later. The following year, he wed Scottish journalist Anna Torv after she interviewed him for his Sydney Daily Mirror newspaper. They share three children together, 53-year-old Elisabeth, 51-year-old Lachlan, and 49-year-old James, and divorced in 1999 after 32 years of marriage. Within days of their divorce, Murdoch remarried media mogul Wendi Deng. The pair first met in 1997 when Deng worked at Murdoch’s Star TV station in Hong Kong, and they had two children together, 21-year-old Grace and 19-year-old Chloe, before divorcing in 2014. And most recently, the billionaire married supermodel Jerry Hall in 2016 shortly before his 85th birthday. Last summer, they announced that they were going their separate ways.

The New York Post had no further comment.



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