Rupert Murdoch gets engaged to Ann Lesley Smith at his California vineyard estate

By Toyin Owoseje | CNN Business

Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is preparing to walk down the aisle for the fifth time.

The 92-year-old tycoon revealed he’s engaged to marry Ann Lesley Smith in an article published Monday in the New York Post, one of his own publications.

Murdoch told gossip columnist Cindy Adams that he met his soon-to-be wife in September, when she visited his vineyard, the Moraga Estate, in Bel Air, California.

“I was very nervous,” Murdoch said of their whirlwind romance. “I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy.”

The News Corp. founder proposed with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire in New York on St. Patrick’s Day, because he is “one-fourth Irish.”

The pair intend to get hitched in late summer this year. “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” Murdoch said.

Smith was previously married to Chester Smith, a country singer and radio and TV executive, who died in 2008.

The 66-year-old bride-to-be said she and Murdoch, whose empire includes outlets like Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, bonded over their shared knowledge of the media industry.

“Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman. Worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote (Spanish-language TV network) Univision. So I speak Rupert’s language. We share the same beliefs,” Smith said.

In 2016, he married his fourth wife, former model Jerry Hall, at St. Bride’s Church on London’s Fleet Street. They divorced in August last year.

CNN has reached out to representatives of Murdoch and Smith for further comment.

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