Penny Lancaster has revealed she was ready to leave her husband Rod Stewart if he wouldn’t agree to have children with her, before the couple endured a heartbreaking IVF journey to start a family together.
The model, 54, has been married to the rocker, 80, for 18 years, and she shared that when they began dating, he was reluctant to expand his family, as he was already a father to six children with four different women.
Rod is father to daughter Sarah Streeter, 60, whom he shares with ex-girlfriend Susannah Boffey, as well as daughter Kimberly, 45, and Sean, 44, from his marriage to actress Alana Stewart. He also shares daughter Ruby, 37, with ex-girlfriend Kelly Emberg, and daughter Renee, 32, with ex-girlfriend Rachel Hunter.
Asked whether she was willing to end her relationship with Rod if he stuck to his guns, Penny said: ‘Yes. And that would have been very hard. But we just went with the flow.’
She went onto say that Rod now feels he wished he’d relented sooner so they could have had a larger family together.
She told Saga Magazine: ‘Even five years ago we were talking about adopting, but it ended up not happening. We thought there might be too much of an age gap.’Â
Penny Lancaster has revealed she was ready to leave her husband Rod Stewart if he wouldn’t agree to have children with her, as she opened about their IVF journey (pictured in May)
The model, who married the rocker in 2007, also spoke about her journey to start a family in an interview on BBC Breakfast
After insisting that she wanted children, Penny suffered a miscarriage when she fell pregnant, and the couple then went through IVF before having two sons, Alastair, 19, and Aiden, 14.Â
The former Loose Women star went on to discuss her IVF journey during an interview on BBC Breakfast, praising her ‘patient’ husband for supporting her throughout the process.Â
She said: ‘I mean, there’s a certain amount of injections you have to do, one in the stomach and one in your bottom. You know, I was injecting myself backstage at Rod’s shows, on planes, at home, you know, like wherever it was necessary.
‘Rod was very patient and very committed. And he just said, ”Look, darling, if you want to keep giving it a go, I’m right behind you. Let’s go for this.”’
Penny admitted there were so lighter moments during their IVF journey despite the struggles she and Rod faced, adding: ‘And he had a great sense of humour with the whole thing as well.Â
‘He always talks about how the doctor puts his sperm under a microscope to study it, and one sperm had two heads and one had a couple of feet.’Â
The Special Constable added there should be a more open discussiong around fertility issues, saying: ‘So I think for women and men to be able to talk openly about it, the serious side, and sort of putting a bit of fun back into it.’
Detailing their first meeting, Penny, who has been promoting her new memoir, said: ‘It was a Christmas party, and a friend of mine dared me to go and get an autograph, and it happened to be Rod Stewart.’
After insisting that she wanted children, Penny suffered a miscarriage when she fell pregnant, and she and Rod went through IVF before having two sons, Alastair, 19, and Aiden, 14
Presenter Charlotte Gallagher the asked Penny about how her parents reacted when they discovered she and Rod were dating.
She then revealed: ‘They always knew I was more attracted to an older person, but Rod Stewart, they thought, ”this could come with some hurdles or some problems along the way”.
‘But in fact, my dad, being a lawyer in the City of London, decided, ”I was going to wear a leather jacket when they met”. And Rod said, ”Right, I’m going to wear a pinstripe suit like a lawyer”.
‘So they both kind of like switched outfits for their first introduction. But they got on like a house on fire, and so did he and my mum. I suppose they come from the same generation, almost the same age, as one another.’Â
Rod met his now-wife Penny Lancaster just six months after his split from Rachel, and said the gap was purely because his friend wouldn’t hand over her number.
When asked if he wanted to be single first, he quipped: ‘F***ing right, there were six months between Rachel and Penny because my bass player, who had Penny’s number, wouldn’t give it to me.
‘He said, “All you’re going to do now is s**g around”, and he was right: I had a splendid time in those six months.’
Rod gushed over his wife Penny, and told how she has ‘everything’ he wants as he revealed he is now happier than ever.Â
