Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged to be married for the fifth time, less than a year after his last divorce.
Murdoch, the 92-year-old chairman of the vast News Corporation empire, reportedly plans to tie the knot this time with Ann Lesley Smith, 66, sometime in the summer.
“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 one of his news outlets, The New York Post, which noted he proposed to Smith on Saint Patrick’s Day in New York City with a personally selected Asscher-cut diamond solitaire ring.
“I’m one-fourth Irish,” Murdoch quipped.
Smith, identified in the report as a former San Francisco police chaplain, appears to have been married twice before.
Her first coupling was with a wealthy man she identified as “John,” whom she alleged in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network had become abusive when he drank alcohol.
Smith then married Chester Smith, a country music singer and media executive who died of heart failure at the age of 78 in 2008. The two recorded an album together, “Captured By Love,” in 2005.
Murdoch and Smith reportedly met last year at Murdoch’s vineyard Moraga in Bel Air, California.
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“For us both it’s a gift from God. We met last September,” Smith said. “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.”
Murdoch has been married four times before and has six children. He last tied the knot with model Jerry Hall. The two were married for six years until their divorce was finalized in August.
Both Murdoch and Smith both said they look forward to settling down for “the second half” of their lives.
“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,” Smith said.
“We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” Murdoch said.