Rupert Murdochis no longer planning a wedding.
The media mogul, 92, and Ann Lesley Smith, 66, have called off their engagement, a source close to Murdoch confirms to PEOPLE.
The news came just two weeks after the billionaireannounced the engagementto one his own newspapers,The New York Post, saying they planned to have a ceremony in late summer.
Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith.Steven Ferdman/Getty Images; Ann Lesley Live Facebook
Murdoch proposed to the former police chaplain on St. Patrick’s Day in New York City, following last year’s divorce from his fourth wife, supermodelJerry Hall.
When heannounced the engagementback in March, Murdoch said he “was very nervous.”
“I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last,” he told the outlet. “It better be. I’m happy.”
“We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” added the billionaire.
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Rupert Murdoch.Daniele Venturelli/WireImage
Murdoch — whose empire includes Fox News,The Wall Street Journaland a string of other media assets around the world — met Smith in September 2022, just one month after hefinalized his last divorce.
“Last year when there was 200 people at my vineyard, I met her and we talked a bit,” he toldThe New York Post. “Two weeks later I called her.”
Smith, who was previously married to late country singer and executive Chester Smith, said that “friends are happy for me.”
“I’m a widow 14 years. Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman,” she told the outlet. “In perspective, it’s not my first rodeo. Getting near 70 means being in the last half. I waited for the right time.”
Smith had one previous marriage before tying the knot with her former husband, according totheModesto Bee.
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
The Australian-born billionaire married his first wife Patricia Booker in 1956. They divorced in 1967, and that same year, he married his second wife, Anna Maria Torv.
The pair divorced in 1999, the same year Murdoch married his third wife, Wendi Deng, from whom he split in 2013. The three marriages resulted in six children.
Murdoch and Hall married in a civil ceremonyat Spencer House in London in, 2016, and were married for six years.
source: people.com
