You are only as old as the woman you feel. Or it becomes an old joke. One assumes media nonagenarian Rupert Murdoch, newly engaged to the beautiful Ann Lesley Smith, 26 years his junior, must be feeling positive this week.
In an exclusive interview offered by the New York Post, one of its own papers, the 92-year-old shared with Page Six columnist Cindy Adams his expectations for his fifth marriage. He proposed with an Asscher-cut solitaire diamond, on St Patrick’s Day, after a whirlwind romance. “I’m so nervous,” Adams said in a strange staccato that sounded like someone reading from a war telegram. “I’m afraid of falling in love – but I know it will be the last. It’s better. I’m happy.”
Smith, a former journalist, recording artist and San Francisco police chaplain, is sanguine about finding love at 66. “In perspective, it’s not the first rodeo,” he told Adams. “Approaching 70 means being in the last half. I’m waiting for the right moment. My friends like me.”
Adams, who is 92 years old, did not indicate that Murdoch was always in the last 10.
More importantly, the engagement once again reminds you that the world is very small when you are one of the very rich. One of the first sightings of the couple was in January, when they were on vacation in Barbados, at the invitation of Lord and Lady Bamford, a couple who have emerged as the chief consiglieri for the global power elite. Lord Bamford, whose fortune was made through his JCB construction machinery business, is a major Tory donor, and his family has provided various accommodation for former prime minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie in recent years. The Bamfords’ home Daylesford House in Gloucestershire was used as the venue for the couple’s wedding reception, and the Johnsons lived in another property owned by Lady Bamford after Johnson left Number 10.
From their base in the Cotswolds, the Bamfords sit at the center of a fascinating power nexus that includes former Conservative leaders, lower-ranking aristocrats and media mavens, including Murdoch’s long-term henchwoman Rebekah Brooks. When the business database at Daylesford Organic, Carole Bamford’s luxury food company, was targeted by Russian criminals last September and held for ransom, the contact book offered an impressive list of patrons, including columnist, petrolhead and farmer Jeremy Clarkson, Duchess of York. and “national treasure” Sir David Attenborough.
Murdoch, whose personal fortune is estimated at $21.7bn, may not have a phone call for Bamford when planning a summer wedding. But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised. If I were an enterprising singleton in search of someone in possession of a colossal fortune, I would get myself to Daylesford and loiter near the cheddar aisle.
Murdoch’s decision to marry after a short and sweet courtship appears to be a manifestation of his religious leanings: he prefers marriage to dating. It also creates a heartwarming portrait of a man addicted to romantic travel. Of course, in 92, one would give the best advice to keep the Mistress, if only to ward off future disputes about one’s Estate? It seems inconceivable that Murdoch would be ready to pass on his fortune to another heir.
Then again, Murdoch’s divorce arrangements remain a mystery, and perhaps by design. It has been a myth that he paid $ 1.7 billion to Anna Murdoch Mann, the mother of Elisabeth, James and Lachlan (now the chairman of News Corp), when they divorced in 1999. wrong. Meanwhile, a subsequent report said Murdoch gave the first four children $100m-$150m payment to get two daughters with Wendi Deng included in Murdoch’s trust. Six trusts will eventually share the inheritance.
One imagines that, at the age of 92, there is less concern that this new union needs trust to grow again. Then again, followers from succession, which returns to screens this weekend (hallelujah), will be quick to note that the billionaire media baron can perform fertility miracles. Jesse Armstrong’s fictional study of the Waystar Royco conglomerate and its last dynastic struggle finds boorish patriarch Logan Roy increasingly spawning the ministry of PA and confidante Kerry Castellabate. In particular, there was a lot of confusion because he encouraged her to drink a strange sperm-enhancing elixir made from maca root.
Logan Roy’s romantic conquests are less demonstrative than Rupe’s. But if I’m Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, Prudence, Grace or Chloe, I can keep an eye on what’s in the festive aperitif.
Jo’s email at jo.ellison@ft.com
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