Too religious: the 92-year-old media magnate Murdoch will soon cancel his fifth marriage

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and 66-year-old Ann Lesley Smith have called off their wedding plans that were announced just a month ago. The project was suddenly shut down because Murdoch had interfered with Smith’s religious views, Vanity Fair reported, citing sources close to Murdoch.

The 92-year-old multimillionaire had proposed to Smith on St. Patrick’s Day and made the plans public shortly afterwards. At the time, he told the New York Post that he was going to marry Smith and they would “spend the second half of our lives together.” “I was very nervous. I was very afraid of falling in love again, but I knew it would be my last time. It should be anyway. I’m happy,” Murdoch said at the time.

In September, according to the New York Post, the controversial media entrepreneur met with former police chaplain Smith at his Moraga winery in California. The wedding celebration was to take place in the summer – a year after Murdoch’s divorce from his fourth wife, model Jerry Hall.

Australian-born Murdoch, a US citizen since 1985, is one of the most powerful media entrepreneurs in the world. He owns the conservative news channel Fox News and the Wall Street Journal newspaper in the US and the tabloid Sun and The Times newspaper in the UK. (sda/afp)