Media mogul and billionaire Rupert Murdoch is engaged at the age of 96, and his fiancée, Ann Lesley Smith, is 30 years his junior.
Murdoch proposed to Smith, a former police chaplain in San Francisco, on St. Patrick’s Day in New York City, according to People. He published the news of his engagement Monday in his own newspaper, the New York Post.
“I’m one-fourth Irish,” Murdoch said in an op-ed by the NY Post’s Cindy Adams, speaking about the timing of his proposal. “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy.”
Rupert Murdoch, 96, Announces Engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, 66: ‘I Was Very Nervous’ https://t.co/72ciOMxCE4
— People (@people) March 20, 2023
Smith echoed the excitement and provided more insight into what keeps the 66-year-old connected to her 96-year old fiancée, despite their obvious age gap.
“I’m a widow 14 years. Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman,” Smith told the NY Post.
She said her late husband “worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote Univision.”
“So I speak Rupert’s language. We share the same beliefs,” Smith continued.
Smith addressed the maturity level they both bring to the relationship at this stage in their lives.
“In perspective, it’s not my first rodeo. Getting near 70 means being in the last half,” she said. “I waited for the right time. Friends are happy for me.”
Murdoch told readers how he and met his new, much younger fiancée in Bel Air, California.
“She and her husband also owned a vineyard and had been in the wine business,” Murdoch said. (RELATED: REPORT: Madonna Is 35 Years Older Than Her New Boy-Toy)
“Last year when there was 200 people at my vineyard, I met her and we talked a bit. Two weeks later I called her,” Murdoch said.
“We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” he concluded.
Murdoch was previously famously married to supermodel Jerry Hall.