Australian media mogul and naturalized American citizen Rupert Murdoch has gotten engaged for the fifth time at the age of 92, world media reported on Friday, citing his spokesman.
The fiancee of the billionaire is the 66-year-old widow Anne Leslie Smith from San Francisco.
The news was reported by the New York Post, one of the publications owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation media company. According to the publication, the tycoon and his new love met at one of his California vineyards last September – just a month after his official divorce from his fourth wife, model Jeri Hall.
Anne Leslie Smith’s late husband of 14 years was country singer Chester Smith, who also held management positions in radio and television.
According to the New York Post, Rupert Murdoch presented his girlfriend with a diamond engagement ring on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. They will get married at the end of the summer.
“I was very nervous. I was afraid of falling in love, but I knew it would be my last time. It’s better that way. I’m happy,” Murdoch told the New York Post.
“It’s a godsend for both of us,” points out Ann Leslie Smith. “Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman … So I speak Rupert’s language. We believe in the same things,” she adds.
In addition to Jerry Hall, the tycoon has three more failed marriages behind him – with Australian Patricia Booker, who was a flight attendant, with Scottish-born journalist Anna Mann, who, according to the media, received 1 billion US dollars after their divorce, and with the entrepreneur with Chinese origin Wendy Deng.
Rupert Murdoch, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at more than 17 billion US dollars, is the father of six children.
