Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced his engagement to his partner Ann Lesley Smith, 66, a former police chaplain.

Murdoch and Smith met in September at an event at his vineyard in California.

The businessman who has six children from his first three marriages told the New York Post, one of his own publications: "I dreaded falling in love - but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I'm happy."

He split with fourth wife Jerry Hall last year.

Murdoch added that he proposed to Smith on St Patrick's Day, noting that he was "one fourth Irish" and had been "very nervous".

Smith's late husband was Chester Smith, a country singer and radio and TV executive.

"For us both it's a gift from God. We met last September," she told the New York Post.

Murdoch was previously married to Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker, Scottish-born journalist Anna Mann, and Chinese-born entrepreneur Wendi Deng.