Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch calls off engagement to would-be fifth wife: report
She’s the one that got away.
Right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch — a veteran of four divorces — reportedly ended his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith. Vanity Fair says the 92-year-old Fox News creator will not tie the knot with the 66-year-old former dental hygienist he announced last month he would marry.
Smith’s “outspoken evangelical views” were reportedly one of the reasons Murdoch called off the wedding.
While in her 20s, Smith married a wealthy philanthropist nearly 20 years her senior, Vanity Fair reports. They divorced after he allegedly became an abusive alcoholic, and she later said Jesus brought “new meaning” to her life. At one point, she even became a street preacher, according to an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
However, there could be more than religion to Murdoch’s cold feet.
As Vanity Fair reports, “less favorable headlines surfaced after the media began investigating Smith’s patchy biography.” These investigations led to uncovering some nasty litigation between Smith and her former stepdaughters, who accused her of “financial elder abuse” while married to their father, country singer Chester Smith.
News of the ended engagement comes just two and a half weeks after Murdoch and Smith got engaged on St. Patrick’s Day in New York City. The pair reportedly met last September, a month after Murdoch finalized his divorce from supermodel Jerry Hall after six years of marriage.
Despite calling off the wedding, Murdoch may soon find himself saying “I do” in a Delaware courtroom, where Fox News is being sued for reporting lies about the 2020 presidential election.
A judge ruled last week it was “crystal clear” Fox News broadcast false information, but said a jury should hear the case. Murdoch confessed in a deposition some of his hosts “endorsed” disinformation about Dominion Voting Systems and election fraud.
A Fox News publicist told the Daily News last week the civil case “has been about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news.” The First Amendment says congress shall make no law “abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”
Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion from Murdoch’s company. A Delaware judge ruled last week the nonagenarian Fox News boss, who travels the world and was ready to marry for a fifth time, was fit to fly to attend the Dominion trial.
