Radar Told You First: Rupert Murdoch Is Engaged — Again
March 20 2023, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is once again engaged, RadarOnline.com can confirm.
In a sudden development to come just months after the 92-year-old FOX News founder divorced his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, in August, Murdoch is now officially engaged to 66-year-old Ann Lesley Smith.
According to the New York Post, Murdoch proposed to Smith on Friday while celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
He reportedly proposed to his bride-to-be with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire ring that he himself selected.
“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last,” he told the Post. “It better be. I’m happy.”
Smith, who previously served as San Francisco’s police chaplain, further confirmed her and Murdoch’s engagement by telling the Post: “For us both it’s a gift from God. We met last September.”
“I’m a widow 14 years. Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman,” she said, referring to her late husband, Chester Smith. “Worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote Univision. So I speak Rupert’s language. We share the same beliefs.”
"In perspective, it’s not my first rodeo,” Smith continued. “Getting near 70 means being in the last half. I waited for the right time. Friends are happy for me.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Murdoch and Smith met in September just one month after the media mogul and his fourth wife divorced in August.
In February, five months after the pair met, a source close to Murdoch told us to “expect an announcement soon.”
Although reports indicated Murdoch’s marriage to Hall had created tension between the billionaire media magnate and his family, insiders recently revealed Murdoch’s family are happy about the 92-year-old’s new relationship with Smith after she launched a “full-on charm offensive” to win them over.
“Everyone around him is very taken with her,” one source told us in February.
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As RadarOnline.com reported, Murdoch and Smith’s engagement on Friday also came as the businessman remains at the center of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against FOX News.
Murdoch came under fire earlier this month when he admitted that his news network reported on former President Donald Trump’s claims the 2020 presidential election was rigged despite network execs knowing the then-president was lying.
