It seems that love isn’t in the air for Rupert Murdoch and his 26-year-old fiancé, as the 92-year-old media mogul has reportedly called off their engagement just 15 days after announcing their plans to marry. According to reports from various news outlets, including The Telegraph and The Guardian, Murdoch and his fiancé, Anna Leslie Smith, mutually agreed to call off the wedding after a heart-to-heart conversation.
This news comes after The New York Post reported last month that Murdoch and Smith had gotten engaged and were planning to marry this summer. Smith was even spotted wearing a dazzling 11-carat diamond engagement ring worth $2 million at the time.
Despite calling off the wedding, Murdoch had previously expressed his happiness with Smith and said that he knew she was the one for him. “I was afraid of falling in love, but I knew this would be the last time,” he said before the engagement was called off.
Some speculate that Smith’s evangelical Christian beliefs may have played a role in the split, but there has been no official confirmation of this.
Murdoch is known for his media empire, which includes dozens of media groups in the US, UK, and Australia. His media properties include Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Sun, and Sky News Australia, among others. According to Forbes, Murdoch’s net worth is an estimated $17.7 billion.
This would have been Murdoch’s fifth marriage, having previously been married to a model, a journalist, a volleyball player, and an actress. He first met Smith, who is the widow of American singer and businessman Chester Smith, in September 2022.
Despite the engagement being called off, there is no doubt that Murdoch will continue to be a powerful figure in the media industry.