92-year-old media mogul: Rupert Murdoch calls off fifth marriage at short notice

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and 66-year-old Ann Leslie Smith announced their engagement a month ago. Wedding plans Canceled at short notice. Vanity Fair, citing sources close to Murdoch, said the project was abruptly halted because Murdoch found it disturbing to Smith’s religious views.

The 92-year-old multimillionaire proposed to Smith on St. Patrick’s Day and made the plans public shortly thereafter. At the time, she told the New York Post that she would marry Smith and that they would “spend the second half of our lives together.” “I was so nervous. I was so scared to fall in love again – but I knew it would be my last time. It had to be anyway. I’m happy,” Murdoch said.

According to the New York Post, the controversial media mogul met former police chaplain Smith at his Moraga winery in California in September. The wedding was due to take place in the summer – a year after Murdoch divorced his fourth wife, model Gerri Hall.

Australian-born Murdoch, a US citizen since 1985, is one of the world’s most powerful media entrepreneurs. He owns the conservative news channel Fox News and the Wall Street Journal newspaper in the US and the Sun and the Times newspaper in the UK.

(AFP/chk)