Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, to marry Ann Lesley Smith. Who is she?

By India Today Lifestyle DeskMedia mogul Rupert Murdoch, 92, is all set to get married for the fifth time. The billionaire, whose business empire includes Fox News in the US and The Sun in the UK, is engaged to Ann Lesley Smith (66). The couple met each other a few months ago, in September 2022, at an event held at his Moraga vineyard in Bel Air, California.

“I met her and we talked a bit. Two weeks later I called her,” said Murdoch, recounting his first meeting with his fiancee. The couple is planning to solemnise their love in a summer wedding and they are looking forward to spending the “second half” of their lives together.

The 92-year-old media mogul popped the question to Ann Lesley earlier this month. He personally selected an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire before presenting it to her in New York. “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch said while talking about the proposal.

While a lot is known about the billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, read on as we tell you about his new fiancee Ann Lesley Smith. The 66-year-old is a former police chaplain and has been married twice before.

She was married to late country music star Chester Smith, who died in 2008 aged 78. “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,” Lesley said in her interview with the New York Post.

She, however, had a tumultuous marriage with her first husband, John B. Huntington. In an old interview, she told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he abused her physically and mentally. ‘He physically abused me, mentally abused me, emotionally,’ she said.

After her messy divorce with her first husband, she was left homeless and found herself living on welfare. In an interview, she revealed that she was on the brink of committing suicide. Amid this tough period, she found solace in Christianity and began to work as a volunteer police chaplain. She also met her second husband, Chester Smith, through this work. Her second marriage is said to be a happy one.

According to CBN, Lesley graduated from college and started her own practice as a dental hygienist in the 1970s. Apart from being a police chaplain and a dental hygienist, Lesley has been a model, recording artist and a radio host as well.

“For us both it’s a gift from God. We met last September,” Ann Lesley Smith said while talking about her relationship with Rupert Murdoch.