Rupert Murdoch’s Engagement To Ann Lesley Smith Has Been Called Off After Only Two Weeks
TRUE LOVE IS DEAD. Vanity Fair reports that 92-year-old billionaire Rupert Murdoch and his 66-year-old fiancé, ex-police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith, have called off their engagement. It was just last month that Rupert announced his plans to make Ann his fifth wife, less than a year after divorcing #4, Jerry Hall. Rupert said he was looking forward to “spending the second half of our lives together.” HA! Alas, Marriage #5 was not meant to be. A source tells Vanity Fair that Rupert had become “increasingly uncomfortable” with Ann’s “outspoken evangelical views.” Wait. Ann was too religious and conservative for Rupert Murdoch, the guy behind Fox News?? Dear Jesus!
Ann used to work as a conservative radio host and Christian minister. She was previously married to country singer and television broadcaster Chester Smith, who passed away in 2008. In last month’s engagement announcement in the New York Post, Ann didn’t hide her religious views. via The Daily Beast:
“For us both it’s a gift from God. We met last September,” the former San Francisco police chaplain stated. “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.”
Well, I guess not exactly the same. When Rupert proposed, he gave Ann an 11-carat diamond engagement ring worth upwards of $2.5 million. At the time, he said that he “knew” Ann would be his last wife. But it all blew up. Vanity Fair blames “less favorable headlines” that surfaced after the media looked into Ann’s past:
Little is known about her childhood. In her 20s, Smith married John B. Huntington, a descendant of a wealthy California railroad family. “I spent $65,000 a month on clothes easily. Money was not an object. I had everything in the world,” she told the Christian Broadcasting Network. They divorced, she said in the CBN interview, when Huntington became an abusive alcoholic. She was suicidal, then found Jesus in a coffee shop and became a street preacher in Marin County, California. “When you let the Lord take control of your life, you can make it. Out of the ruins you can rise and let the oil of his anointing just be all over you,” she told CBN.
After finding Jesus in a coffee shop, she married Chester Smith, who was 26 years her senior. When Chester died in 2008, she became embroiled in a nasty court battle with his daughters over his fortune:
At one point, in court documents, a stepdaughter accused Ann Lesley of “financial elder abuse.” The litigation was settled in 2010, and Ann Lesley admitted no wrongdoing.
Rupert’s three adult children, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James, from his second marriage to Anna Murdoch Mann, were reportedly relieved that Ann Lesley Smith had no children of her own. More kids could’ve further complicated the real-life “Succession” battle over the Murdoch media empire. See: Rupert’s two daughters, Chloe and Grace, with Wife #3 Wendi Dang. Their births “ignited a revolt” from the adult kids, who opposed allowing their younger sisters from receiving voting shares on the family trust.
Hey, Rupert marrying Ann would’ve been a big win for Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James. There’s no way she was having any more kids in her sixties! Now they have to worry about their dad falling in love with a gold digger in her prime baby-making years. Here’s Rupert and Ann in happier times:
Ann really fumbled the bag on this one. All she had to do was tone down the “Praise Jesus” crap until Rupert croaked, and she’d be set for life. It’s a lesson to gold diggers everywhere: shut the fuck up and wait. Just wait.
Pic: Kristin Callahan/ACE Pictures/INSTARimages.com