Celebrity News March 20, 2023
Rupert Murdoch, 92, Engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, 66
Getty Images
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, just announced his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, 66.
In a new interview published by The New York Post, one of his papers, he revealed he popped the question in NYC on St. Patrick’s Day with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire ring.
"I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I'm happy."
Smith is a former San Francisco police chaplain. She was previously married to singer, radio, and TV executive Chester Smith, who died in 2008.
She told The Post, “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.”
Ann revealed she met Rupert last September and called their relationship “a gift from God” and said that “friends are happy for me.”
Murdoch recalled meeting Smith at his vineyard in Bel-Air, 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.”
The couple plans to wed in late summer. He joked, “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together.”
Murdoch finalized his divorce from fourth wife Jerry Hall in August 2022. They were married for six years.
