Rod Stewart’s wife, Penny Lancaster, recently made a shocking revelation that she and the rock icon nearly split ways after nearly 20 years of marriage.
The 54-year-old former model opened up about the emotional tension surrounding why she nearly filed for divorce.
“Yes [I would have left him]. And that would have been very hard,” Lancaster admitted to the UK magazine Saga. “But we just went with the flow.”
Lancaster revealed that they almost went their separate ways due to Stewart’s reluctance to expand their family. Four years into the marriage, the couple welcomed their first child through IVF treatment after they struggled to conceive naturally.
She said the 80-year-old rocker eventually expressed regret about his earlier stance.
“Now Rod always says, ‘I wish I’d said yes [to babies] earlier, because then we could have had more children.”
Lancaster added that Stewart’s change of heart was so significant that the couple even considered adoption five years ago, “but it ended up not happening. We thought there might be too much of an age gap,” she explained.
Though initially hesitant about having more children, the legendary singer is no stranger to fatherhood — he has a total of eight children with five different women. His brood includes four daughters — Sarah, 61, Kimberly, 46, Ruby, 38, and Renee, 33 — and four sons — Sean, 45, Liam, 31, Alastair Wallace, 19, and Aiden Patrick, 14.
Stewart welcomed his first child, Sarah, in 1963 with then-girlfriend Susannah Boffey. The couple were teenagers at the time and made the difficult decision to put Sarah up for adoption. The “Sailing” singer later reconnected with his daughter as an adult and spoke about their relationship during a 2010 appearance on “The Joy Behar Show.”
“Since her mum and dad have died, we’ve tried to come together and be close together, and it’s working out pretty well. I never felt like I was her dad, because I didn’t take her to school, change her nappies — there was no paternal thing there — but I’m trying.”
Kimberly and Sean, Stewart’s two eldest children after Sarah, were born during his first marriage to Alana Stewart. In a previous interview with People, Stewart attributed the end of their six-year marriage to marrying too young. “I still had a lot of living, partying, drinking and shagging to do,” he recalled.
His daughter Ruby was born during his relationship with model Kelly Emberg. He later married Rachel Hunter, with whom he shares Renee and Liam. Their 16-year relationship ended in 2006.
Stewart married Lancaster on June 16, 2007, and they share two sons, Alastair and Aiden.
The couple first met in 1999 when Lancaster was a 27-year-old photography student at Barking College in Essex. After meeting at a party, Stewart offered her a job as his tour photographer — a gig that sparked their romance. They began dating and welcomed their first child while Stewart was still legally married but separated from Hunter.
Although Stewart and Lancaster have shared nearly two decades together, their relationship hasn’t always been a fairy tale.
In his 2012 memoir, “Rod: The Autobiography,” the singer admitted to numerous affairs in his early years, referring to himself as “the Last of the Great Philanderers.” He later revealed in a 2013 interview with Life magazine that he and Lancaster briefly separated early in their marriage.
“Penny and I broke up for two weeks,” he shared. That split inspired his cover of Tom Waits’ “Picture in a Frame” on his 2013 album, “Time.”
“I asked her for a photo of herself in a frame so that I could see her when I went to bed and when I woke up,” he said. The couple reconciled and renewed their vows in 2017.
Despite his age, Stewart continues to tour and perform actively, contributing to his estimated net worth of $300 million.
Still, for Stewart, success isn’t just measured in platinum records or sold-out arenas.
“Success to me is being able to look after my kids and give them the opportunity to do what they want in business,” he told People. “There’s nothing like having kids.”
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