Much like the impulsive Logan Roy on Succession, who is ostensibly based on him, Rupert Murdoch appears to have had a sudden change of heart about taking on wife number five.
Could it have been that they hadn't really gotten to know each other very well during their barely six-month-long courtship? Was it the revelation last week, by tabloid competitors to his London tabloids, that his bride-to-be had had a bitter court fight over her last husband's estate with his adult children? Was it the revelation, also in that tabloid, of a psychiatrist's evaluation from decades ago that his betrothed had a "a mixed personality disorder with narcissistic, major hysterical and occasional borderline dimensions"?
Whatever the reason, according to a Tuesday report by Vanity Fair, billionaire media scion Rupert Murdoch, 92, has allegedly called off his engagement to former Bay Area resident Ann Lesley Smith.
Murdoch had happily crowed about the engagement in the gossip pages of one of his own papers, the New York Post, just two weeks ago.
Smith, 66, had happily participated in the New York Post announcement, telling columnist Cindy Adams, "In perspective, it’s not my first rodeo. Getting near 70 means being in the last half. I waited for the right time. Friends are happy for me."
And Murdoch said he was in love and "happy," and added, ironically, "We're both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together."
The UK's iNews reported that Murdoch's adult children from his second marriage — two men and a woman, like the Roys on Succession — Elisabeth, Lachland, and James, were "relieved" that Smith had no children of her own, which would further complicate their succession plans for NewsCorp.
Anyway, it looks like Murdoch is back on the market! He divorced wife number four, model-actress Jerry Hall, last summer. And as he told Adams last month, he "dreaded falling in love" again.
What is love, really?
There's no word on whether Smith will be keeping the $2.5 million engagement ring.
Previously: Murdoch's Bride-to-Be Had Bitter Court Fight Over Her Last Rich Husband's Modesto Estate
Top image: Rupert Murdoch attends 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 24, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)