Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith call off engagement 2 weeks after announcement
- The wedding, originally planned for this summer, would have marked the 92-year-old media tycoon’s 5th marriage
- A person close to Murdoch says he had grown uncomfortable with Smith’s outspoken evangelical views
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former San Francisco police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith have called off their engagement, a source confirmed on Tuesday.
The 92-year-old Fox Corp chairman and Smith had planned to marry this summer. It would have been his fifth marriage.
Vanity Fair reported the break-up, citing one source close to Murdoch as saying he had grown uncomfortable with Smith’s outspoken evangelical views.
Murdoch and Smith, 66, met in September at his vineyard Moraga in Bel Air, California, and he called her two weeks later, Murdoch told News Corp-owned New York Post, which broke the news of the engagement.
Smith is a widow whose late husband was Chester Smith, a country singer, radio and television executive.
On March 17 in New York, Murdoch presented Smith with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire ring, according to the New York Post.
“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 at the time.
