Ann Lesley Smith, Murdoch’s girlfriend, abused by a husband: “I had suicidal thoughts”

Ann Lesley Smith66, is the fiancée of the communication magnate, Rupert Murdoch, 92 years old, and is going to become his fifth wife. For women it is not a new situation. She has been married two more times, and the first one, when she was 28 years old, was a torture marriage. As she has acknowledged, her first husband, the lawyer John B. Huntington, then 47 years old, physically and emotionally abused her every night due to her dependence on alcohol. The woman has confessed that after her divorce she was left on the street with nothing: “I had suicidal thoughts.”

Ann Lesley married Huntington, a member of one of California’s most illustrious families and pioneers in railroad expansion during the 19th century. With him she enjoyed $65,000 a month just for wardrobe expenses. As she has sometimes acknowledged, “during the day my life was fun and exciting” because her garage was full of luxury cars and her stables of thoroughbred horses.

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But life in that home at night was a real hell. As soon as the alcohol took its toll, Huntington harassed her physically and psychologically. When they divorced, the prenuptial agreement came into effect and Ann Lesley was left with absolutely nothing; she became “homeless” that she had to live on welfare.

This movie life that could have ended in tragedy was recovered thanks to her religious faith, which encouraged her to work at whatever it took until she became a volunteer chaplain with the San Francisco police.

This is how the current girlfriend of the Fox mogul met her second husband, Chester Smiththe country singer of Christian beliefs with whom she became a presenter on the radio station that he had launched in Modesto as early as 1963. Together with her husband, Ann launched the musical album Captured by love. Chester developed more radio stations and television channels, helped the success of the Hispanic channel Univisión and, together with his wife, also managed vineyards.

Murdoch’s current girlfriend continued to work as a journalist, model, singer and even a dental hygienist after the death of her husband in 2008. Now, after fourteen years of being a widow, she has found love again in the figure of another media entrepreneur of communication, to which he is also united by his love for wine production. “We speak the same language,” said Ann, who met Rupert during a visit to his vineyards in Moraga, in Bel Air, California, where Smith was also present and they fell in love, according to what they have said.

For her, “in perspective, this is not my first rodeo,” she has said of her new relationship. “I was widowed 14 years ago and I have waited for the right time, this is a gift for both of us,” said the bride. For his part, Murdoch married for the first time in 1956 with the stewardess Patricia Booker. Then came the marriages with Anna Maria Torv, Wendi Deng y Jerry Hall. Smith ends the list, for the moment, in fifth place.