mercurynews | In breaking news that Murdoch had called off the engagement, Sherman reported that Smith’s politics and religious views might have been too extreme even for the man who owns Fox News. A source close to Murdoch told Sherman earlier this month that Murdoch had become “increasingly uncomfortable” with Smith’s “outspoken evangelical views.”
On Facebook, she shared a mix of inspirational self-help talk with Christian nationalism and right-wing conspiracy theories. She also said “Tucker Carlson is a messenger from God, and he said nope,” a source told Sherman.
It’s also possible that Murdoch — or people close to him — also had become increasingly uncomfortable with news reports that began circulating about Smith. Details about her personal history were sketchy, including where she was born and grew up. But it had become known that she had been married at least twice to much-older men and that those marriages ended in bitter and protracted legal fights over money.
It’s easy to see how Murdoch’s three adult children from his second marriage wouldn’t want any added complications from Smith as they gear up for an-already complicated succession battle over the future of the Murdoch empire, Sherman reported. Perhaps Murdoch also didn’t want to be associated with a woman whose
In several interviews in recent years, Smith liked to portray herself living a “rags-to-riches” storyline that became even more fulfilling when, she said, Jesus and prayer brought new meaning into her life.
“When you let the Lord take control of your life, you can make it,” Smith once told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “Out of the ruins you can rise, and let the oil of his anointing just be all over you.”
Smith said she found Jesus after surviving a turbulent first marriage in the 1980s to the much-older John B. Huntington, a scion of one of San Francisco’s most prominent families. They married when she was a 28-year-old dental hygienist, joining the 47-year-old Huntington’s high-society life-style, which included a Tiburon estate, philanthropic endeavors, gala openings and a clothing budget of up to $65,000 a month.
Smith made news at one of the galas when she was involved in “a shoving match” with another socialite on the dance floor at the Fairmont Hotel, the New York Times reported. Smith pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and was ordered to donate $3,000 to a shelter for abused women, Reuters reported at the time.
After Smith and Huntington separated in 1989, she launched an unsuccessful court fight to extend spousal support, according to court records. She claimed she suffered post-traumatic stress from Huntington’s alleged abuse and alcoholism.
Following the divorce, Smith told CBN that she had to go on welfare and became suicidal but found redemption through faith and worked for a time as a street preacher in Marin County. In 1999, she married Michael Carabello, a former percussionist in the rock band Santana, but that marriage only lasted a year, the New York Times reported.
At some point, Smith met her second husband, Chester Smith, a former country music star who became wealthy by buying up independent local TV stations. He married her, just after divorcing his first wife, whom he had been married to for 42 years, according to the Daily Mail. He was 74 at the time, while his new bride was 27 years his junior.
Early in their marriage, Chester and Ann Lesley Smith cut a country
music album together titled “Captured in Love.” The album cover shows
Smith dressed in a police uniform; she told the Modesto Bee that she met
her very devout Christian husband when she was working as a prison
chaplain. Hat tip DD.
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