Rupert Murdoch is back on the market.
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It comes after a fleeting love story between the 92-year-old media mogul and the 66-year-old dental-hygienist-turned-radio host and prison chaplain Ann Lesley Smith.
A source close to Murdoch confirmed to the LA Times that the engagement has been called off.
He proposed just weeks ago, on St Patrick's Day in New York City, then gushed over his engagement to the New York Post, saying he "dreaded falling in love", but knew this would be his last.
"It better be," he said. "I'm happy."
Murdoch split from fourth wife, Jerry Hall, in August 2022, just a month before reportedly meeting Smith at his winery and vineyard in Bel-Air.
In January, the whirlwind romance was on display when they were photographed beachside in Barbados by the Daily Mail.
And less than a month before Murdoch popped the question, the Wall Street Journal reported that he signed on to buy a 603 square metre full-floor apartment in a building overlooking Central Park South.
On March 17, Murdoch asked Smith to be his wife, presenting her with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire.
"For us both it's a gift from God," Smith told the Post.
"I'm a widow 14 years," she continued. "Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman. Worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote Univision. So I speak Rupert's language. We share the same beliefs."
Murdoch has declined to comment, but a source close to the media titan told Vanity Fair the billionaire had become "increasingly uncomfortable" with Smith's "outspoken evangelical views".
According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, Smith's first marriage to lawyer John B Huntington allegedly turned abusive, and Smith was left penniless and homeless when they divorced.
She was on welfare and turned to modeling and then Jesus after reading the evangelical book Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?
She began volunteering as a police chaplain, then met country singer and media mogul Chester Smith, whom she married and recorded a country album with in 2005. He died in 2008.
Australian Associated Press
