Rupert Murdoch’s engagement with Ann Lesley Smith is called off

By Oliver Darcy, CNN

The media wedding of the summer is no more.

Billionaire right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith have called off their engagement just weeks after announcing they would be tying the knot, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

Vanity Fair, which was first to report the news on Tuesday, noted that “the breakup ends a whirlwind romance that generated headlines around the world.”

Murdoch and Smith’s relationship became public earlier this year when they were photographed vacationing in the Caribbean island of Barbados.

On March 20, Cindy Adams, who writes a gossip column for Murdoch’s New York Post tabloid, reported the two had become engaged.

“I dreaded falling in love — but I knew this would be my last,” Murdoch told Adams at the time. “It better be. I’m happy.”

Smith, who was previously married to the late country singer Chester Smith, described her relationship with Murdoch to Adams as a “gift from God.”

The two were set to marry over the summer, according to Adams.

“We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” Murdoch had said.

The marriage would have been Murdoch’s fifth. Murdoch is the chairman of Fox Corp. and executive chairman of News Corp.

It’s unclear what happened between Murdoch and Smith since the engagement was announced. A spokesperson for Murdoch declined to comment.

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