Australian MME tycoon and owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch92 (recently separated from his fourth wife, supermodel Jerry Hall), has announced his engagement to Anne Leslie Smith, 66, a former model and singer.

Even if she admits she “fell in love,” as she told the New York Post, why rush back into marriage, especially considering all the legal and financial complications that surely accompany a union in which one party is a non… “centenarian” billionaire.

A cynical explanation would be that a love story provides an ideal distraction for Mr Murdoch. It could distract the media from the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News company Dominion Voting Systems, which could go to trial next month.

But there may be another reason Mr. Murdoch wouldn’t mind remarrying at this stage in his life: Because he can.

Marriage brings a sense of adventure and possibility. Every marriage is a border, dividing the person’s life into a “before” and an “after”. And this creation of a new “after” gives all weddings, regardless of the age of the participants, an… aura of youth.

Mr. Murdoch himself acknowledged this, telling the New York Post (which he owns): “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together.” Although this is an ironic, even witty remark, his words nevertheless contain that sense of the future, of more life left, which remarriage evokes.

Everyone has a right to pursue such pleasures, but the playing field is far from level. To be a newlywed at 92, having found an accomplished partner 26 years your junior, is surely one of the rarest privileges in the world. Obviously, it helps to be a billionaire and, most of all, a man.

Let’s face it, few women who reach the age of 90 can expect to find suitors, and certainly not suitors young enough to be their own children.

Older women don’t move easily in the dating and marriage market. People, especially over 50, yearn to avoid mortality, but our culture encourages men and women to do so in very different ways.

With her smooth skin, auburn hair and bright smile, Mrs Smith (Mr Murdoch’s fiancee) looks considerably younger than her years. Recent photos show her tanned and fit in a yellow bikini while relaxing on a beach and frolicking in the waves with her boyfriend in a swimsuit.

Men like Rupert Murdoch resist old age and allow themselves – why not – to climb the church steps again if they so desire. However, just as these photos of Mr. Murdoch and Ms. Smith surfaced, a former Fox employee filed a lawsuit against the company in the Southern District of New York. In her lawsuit, Abby Grossberg claims she was subjected to vulgar sexist comments, was demeaned, and was denied promotion opportunities because she was a woman!

So, nothing is accidental…