Rupert Murdoch's Ex-Fiancée Ann Lesley Smith's History Of Alleged Assaults Exposed After Billionaire Calls Off Engagement
April 6 2023, Published 11:01 a.m. ET
The ex-fiancée of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch had a history of assault years before meeting the billionaire media mogul, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising revelation to come shortly after Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith called off their engagement this week, a new report published by the New York Times found that the 66-year-old former dental hygienist allegedly attacked another woman in San Francisco in 1988.
According to the Times, the incident took place during a society gala at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel shortly before Lesley Smith split from her first husband, California railroad heir John B. Huntington.
During the incident, which was described by Reuters as “a shoving match between two San Francisco socialites,” the then-31-year-old Lesley Smith allegedly attacked a woman named Avelina Pritchard.
“She pulled my hair,” Pritchard told the Times when asked about the alleged altercation roughly 35 years ago. “She scratched me.”
Lesley Smith pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor assault and was subsequently ordered to donate $3,000 to a shelter for abused women.
Even more shocking were Lesley Smith’s claims that her first husband, Huntington, had been physically abusive during their marriage from 1985 to 1989.
In 1992, while requesting greater financial support from her ex-husband in court, three mental health experts corroborated Lesley Smith’s physical abuse allegations against Huntington and claimed Lesley Smith suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the purported abuse.
It was not until a few years later, when Lesley Smith converted to Christianity in the mid-1990s, that she revealed her life started to “turn around.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, 92-year-old Murdoch and 66-year-old Lesley Smith were recently engaged for roughly two weeks before the engagement was suddenly called off on Tuesday.
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Although it is unclear why exactly the pair’s engagement deteriorated, a source close to the billionaire media magnate claimed it was in part due to Murdoch growing "increasingly uncomfortable" with Lesley Smith’s "outspoken evangelical views."
Murdoch’s decision to call off the engagement also came as the Fox News owner is preparing to go to trial over a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against the conservative news network by Dominion Voting Systems.
While the trial is set to start on April 17, Murdoch’s lawyers are currently fighting to prevent the 92-year-old from being forced to testify in person in connection to the matter.
