Rupert Murdoch is still frisky at 92—and he just can’t stay single.
Less than a year after divorcing Jerry Hall, the Fox mogul is ready to head down the altar one more time. He’s engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a 66-year-old San Francisco police chaplain. According to gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who broke the story in the New York Post, Murdoch’s future wife was previously married to Chester Smith, a country-western singer, as well as a radio and TV executive who died in 2008. A spokesperson for Murdoch confirmed the engagement to Variety.
Adams reports that the two bonded over their shared knowledge of the media business as well as the fact that she once owned a vineyard and he still does.
If they tie the knot, it will be Murdoch’s fifth marriage. Hall, a model and actress, was married to Murdoch for six years. In addition to Hall, Murdoch was previously married to Wendi Deng from 1999 to 2013; Anna Maria Torv from 1967 to 1999; and Patricia Booker from 1956 to 1967.
“I was very nervous,” Murdoch told Adams. “I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy” he says—probably not for the first time.
This is likely one of the few happy spots in Murdoch’s life at present, as he is facing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox by Dominion Voting. The technology company alleges that Fox News anchors made knowingly false claims about Dominion’s influence on the 2020 election, implying that it rigged the race to favor Joe Biden.
