Karwai Tang / Contributor
Rupert Murdoch just can’t stay single.
Less than a year after his divorce from Jerry Hall, wedding bells are ringing again for the 92-year-old Fox mogul. He is engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a 66-year-old San Francisco police chaplain. According to gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who published the story in the New York Post, Murdoch’s wife-to-be was previously married to Chester Smith, a country-western singer and radio and TV executive, who died in 2008. Adams reports that the two were bonded through their shared knowledge of the media business, as well as the fact that she once owned a winery 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 was scared of falling in love – but I knew it would be my last. It is better. I am happy.”
The news comes as Dominion Voting’s Murdoch faces a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox. The tech company alleges that Fox News anchors knowingly made false claims about Dominion’s influence on the 2020 election, implying that it rigged the race to favor Joe Biden.
Murdoch is Chairman of Fox Corporation, a publicly traded entity that controls Fox Broadcasting, Fox Sports, Fox Business and Fox News. As the head of News Corporation, he owns the New York Post alongside the Wall Street Journal, The Sun and the book publisher Harper Collins. A spokesman for Murdoch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.