Ann Lesley Smith, Rupert Murdoch break off their engagement
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New York: A source verified on Tuesday that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former San Francisco police chaplain Ann Lesley Smith had broken off their engagement.
Smith and the 92-year-old chairman of Fox Corp. had been set to wed this summer. This would have been his fifth marriage.
According to a source close to Murdoch who was cited in Vanity Fair's report on the breakup, Smith's outspoken evangelical beliefs became uncomfortable for Murdoch, Reuters reported.
Smith, 66, and Murdoch first met in September at his vineyard in Bel Air, California. Two weeks later, he called her, according to Murdoch, who spoke to the News Corp-owned New York Post, which first reported the engagement.
Smith is a widow whose late partner was radio and television executive and country singer Chester Smith.
Murdoch reportedly gave Smith an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire band on March 17 in New York.
“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch told the Post at the time.