Will Rupert Murdoch’s six children welcome their latest stepmother? 

Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is set to marry Ann Lesley Smith, a former California police chaplain. The happy couple – who are planning summer weddings aged 92 and 66 – say their romance is a “gift from God”.

It will be her third time down the aisle and his fifth time.

Just seven months after his divorce from Jerry Hall, Murdoch said he and his fiancé are looking forward to “spending the second half of our lives together.”

Of course, this rather optimistic statement foreshadows a longevity that would be more extraordinary than anything else in his already extraordinary life story. But this new romance has clearly made him feel younger than Spring.

His intention, a widowed radio personality and vineyard owner, adds that they share beliefs and life experiences.

“Perspectively, it’s not my first rodeo,” says Ann Lesley. “Approaching 70 means being in the last half. I’ve been waiting for the right time. Friends are happy for me.”

Of course, the joy of the upcoming wedding will be great.

Guests at the Murdoch-Smith wedding include world leaders and other titans of business. Finally, he owns a portfolio of national and international newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, The Sun and The Times in the UK, and book publisher Harper Collins.

Members of Murdoch’s large family will also be in attendance: he has six children including four daughters – Prudence, 64, Elisabeth, 54, Grace, 21, Chloe, 19. Eldest son Lachlan, 51, is his heir apparent and has guided his Has done business with him since 2014. Son James, 50, resigned from News Corp’s board of directors in 2020 after “disagreements” over editorial content.

As we shall see, what they make of this turn of events is a story yet to be written.

As for the event itself, the smart money lies in a sunset ceremony at Moraga Winery in Bel Air, owned by Murdoch. There they met for the first time in September 2022 at a wine mixer. It was here that Ann Lesley was introduced to the newly single billionaire, and he waited a fortnight before asking to see her again.

Who would have thought Murdoch would be such a perennial romantic to pop the question so soon after his six-year marriage to Jerry Hall ended – and pay her around £30million?

I’m told that Jerry still cries into her coffee as she contemplates the ashes of their love story — and that was before her ex announced he was remarrying. She has spent quiet time with her four Sir Mick Jagger children, including a Christmas break in Mustique with the Rolling Stone and all his descendants.

The Texas beauty was sure it would be forever and blames Murdoch’s grown children – leaders in his empire – for driving a wedge between them. Her friends insist that his children were suspicious of efforts to revise the marriage contract in their favor and that a back-and-forth over Jerry’s legal deal in the event of Murdoch’s death prompted their split.

Once again, events in the Murdoch family overshadow the imagined dramas of Succession’s Roy dynasty. (By the way, the hit TV show, created by Brit Jesse Armstrong, returns for its fourth and final appearance on Sky on Monday.)

As to why on earth he would consider another marriage at the age of 92, sources close to Murdoch point out that he is as moral as a choirboy when it comes to romance and doesn’t believe much in sex outside of marriage.

The role of his Christian faith was mentioned in a well-sourced diary entry published on American news website The Daily Beast in February, which predicted an impending engagement. Murdoch proposed with an Asscher-cut diamond shortly thereafter, on Friday, March 17, while the couple was in New York.

He told Cindy Adams, his newspaper’s gossip columnist, the New York Post: “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love – but I knew this would be my last. It is better. I am happy.’

Born in 1957, his new bride is a wealthy woman thanks to a three-year marriage to a much older man who was worth at least $50million (£40million).

She’s a genuine and vivacious soul who loves dogs, fast cars, wine and Jesus – and is suspicious of politicians and the liberal elite. In her, Murdoch has found another strong woman to respect.

His first wife, Patricia Booker, mother of his eldest daughter, married him when he was 25; then came Anna Torv, the journalist, mother of three of his children, followed by the manager Wendi Deng, with whom he has two daughters.

All his women are known for their strong personalities as well as their beauty.

Ann Lesley attended Idaho State University on a scholarship in 1980 and went on to work as a model. She then went into business for herself as a dental hygienist before marrying her first wealthy husband, John B. Huntington, a lawyer who was descended from one of California’s pioneering railroad families.

Huntington served on the board of trustees of the San Francisco Ballet and was an assistant district attorney and honorary deputy sheriff. The couple was a prominent member of a wealthy social elite.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, she said: “The world just opened up to me. Almost like a king. During the day my life was just so funny. John was into cars and we had a stable full of all kinds – exotic Ferraris and all. I easily spent $65,000 (£53,000) a month on clothes. Money was not an object. I had everything in the world.

“Sometimes it was wonderful. It’s the kind of marriage that everyone would have loved to have had. During the day he showered me with gifts and praise.” But she added, “Once John started drinking, he became a different person. He would lock me out of the house. He abused me physically, psychologically, emotionally…which is actually worse than physically because you start to believe the lies.’

In the divorce that followed, she was broke. ‘I was ashamed. It was just so different. What should I do?

“I would go shopping at midnight so no one would see me. I really wanted to commit suicide because my life was so bad.’

Everything changed when she was approached by the event coordinator during a modeling job. She recalls, “She takes me to the coffee shop and says, ‘Honey, I see through you. you hurt The only thing that will help you is that you need Jesus Christ.

‘So she gave it to me [a book] The Four Spiritual Laws, and I reluctantly accepted, went home that night and got on my knees. I was so hurt, so alone and so rejected. And I prayed to God to help me and forgive me my sins… All in the book I did.’ She became a volunteer police chaplain and used her life experience to care for others. In an interview, she said she told the people she cared for, “I’ve been here. I was here and you can get out.’

Through her prison chaplaincy, she met her second husband, country and western musician Chester Smith, who was divorced, 27 years her senior and had three children.

Smith had a hit with the song “Wait A Little Longer Please Jesus” in 1955. A successful performer, he later started a country radio station in Modesto, California, followed by a television station in Northern California, and then others including one in Spanish.

A wealthy man, he reportedly sold his TV business for $40 million in cash plus another $45 million in stock, according to a newspaper obituary.

Before his divorce from his first wife, there were homes in Carmel and Beverly Hills. After the divorce there was still a lot of money. He and Ann Lesley lived in a mansion on a bluff overlooking the Stanislaus River just outside of Riverbank, California. There was also a 2,800-acre cattle ranch in San Andreas.

The two released a CD entitled Captured by Love in 2005, the year of their marriage, but just three years later Chester died of heart failure.

Ever since she became a widower – she has no children of her own – she enjoys giving life advice on a radio show.

She told an interviewer, “A lot of people haven’t been through a lot, and they lecture on things they read in a book. As my late husband used to say, ‘Would you rather go down the Amazon with someone who’s been doing this for 35 years or with someone who’s a college professor at Stanford who’s studied it in books?’ ‘

On the radio last year, she shared her thoughts on closing businesses during Covid. “They’re trying to shut down people’s businesses. Do you know what that does? It’s part of the plan, the plandemic – oops! – Management. It comes and it tumbles over.

“It’s mostly made up, it kills a lot of people… they’re stepping over corpses now. As something begins, so it ends. Trust me. That’s a little wisdom bomb for you.”

She went on to say about the pandemic: “Wasn’t it planned in Davos? Someone told me this was planned – Bill Gates had a meeting in October 2019 – holy smokes – and they did this pandemic run-through, like a fire drill like we used to do in school? And they did.”

More right-wing opinions were revealed when she shared an anti-Hillary Clinton post of herself as Sarah Connor from the Terminator films on social media, captioned “Terminator 10 – The Hillary Solution”.

How will the “Terminator” get along with the Succession children? It sounds like a surefire blockbuster hit.