Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has announced he is engaged to his partner Ann Lesley Smith, a former police chaplain.
Key points:
- Ann Lesley Smith, 66, is a former San Francisco police chaplain
- The pair met at an event at his vineyard in California in September
- They plan to marry late in the northern hemisphere summer
The pair met at an event at his vineyard in California in September.
The marriage will be the fifth for the 92-year-old Australian-born media owner.
He officially split with fourth wife, Jerry Hall, in August.
"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 own publications, the New York Post.
Ms Smith, 66, is a widow whose late husband was Chester Smith, a country singer, radio and TV executive.
Murdoch, who owns titles including The Australian, The Times in the UK, and Fox News in the United States, proposed to Ms Smith in New York on March 17.
The couple plan to marry late in the northern hemisphere summer.
Murdoch has six children from his first three marriages. His first wife was Patricia Booker from Melbourne. The couple married in 1956 and had one child together, their daughter Prudence, before ending their marriage after 11 years.
Murdoch then married his second wife, Scottish journalist Anna Torv, in 1967. Together the couple had three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. The couple divorced after 32 years of marriage.
Murdoch next married third wife Wendi Deng in 1999, and the pair had two children, Grace and Chloe, before divorcing in 2013.
And in 2016, the media mogul tied the knot with fourth wife Jerry Hall.
Marriage unlikely to affect ownership structure
Murdoch's nuptials are unlikely to change the ownership structure of businesses in which he holds stakes, including Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News Channel, and News Corp.
Murdoch controls News Corp and Fox Corp through a Nevada-based family trust that holds roughly a 40 per cent stake in voting shares of each company.
Fox is currently defending itself in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Dominion has accused the cable TV network of amplifying claims that Dominion voting machines were used to rig the US presidential election against Republican Donald Trump and in favour of Joe Biden, who won.
Fox has defended its coverage, arguing claims by Mr Trump and his lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the first amendment of the US constitution.
Reuters