Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corporation and chairman of the Fox Corporation, has found love once again and is tying the knot with Ann Lesley Smith.
According to renowned New York Post gossip journalist Cindy Adams, who has written for Murdoch’s newspaper for decades, Murdoch, 92, personally selected an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire for his future wife that he presented on St. Patrick’s Day.
“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch told Adams. “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together.”
In September, Smith, 66, met the media tycoon at his California estate.
“Last year when there was 200 people at my vineyard, I met her and we talked a bit. Two weeks later I called her,” Murdoch told Adams.
Formerly married to media executive and country singer Chester Smith, Smith has been a widow since 2008.
“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,” she told Adams. “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.”
On October 7, 1996, Murdoch founded Fox News Channel, but he had been a significant media figure all over the world for years before that.
His successful career started in Australia in the early 1950s when he assumed leadership of the family’s business, News Limited. The Murdoch media empire quickly grew on a global scale. By the 1960s, he had also acquired the Sunday Times of Perth and the Daily Mirror of Sydney, as well as the News of the World and the Sun newspapers published in the United Kingdom.
In the early 1970s, he expanded to the US, building his portfolio to include numerous publications, including the New York Post.
Murdoch has been married four times before, and his most recent divorce was with model Jerry Hall last year.