{"id":161276,"date":"2025-11-30T14:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/161276\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T14:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:25:15","slug":"penny-lancaster-lifts-lid-on-life-with-rocker-husband-rod-stewart-and-what-she-finds-sexy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/161276\/","title":{"rendered":"Penny Lancaster lifts lid on life with rocker husband Rod Stewart – and what she finds ‘sexy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penny Lancaster gives a fascinating insight into her life with rock legend Rod Stewart as she opens up on Christmas plans, a potential career swerve and Rod’s emotional plans\"PennyPenny opens up about her husband Rod, Christmas at the Stewarts and Rod’s emotional plans(Image: Dave Benett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Penny Lancaster<\/a> is the undisputed queen of reinvention. She began her career as a model in the 90s, later trained as a photographer and, after finding love with rock icon Rod Stewart<\/a>, embraced her most cherished role yet \u2013 motherhood.<\/p>\n

She went on to compete in Strictly Come Dancing<\/a>, has spent a decade guest presenting on Loose Women<\/a>, and taken on the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen.<\/p>\n

Then, after appearing in Channel 4<\/a> \u2019s Famous And Fighting Crime in 2020, Penny qualified as a special constable<\/a> for the City of London Police. Now, as a new year approaches, the star, 54, is contemplating another professional pivot as she divulges to OK ! her dreams of moving into nature television.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Rochelle Humes unveils new Christmas party collection with Next – and we love it all<\/a>\"pennyPenny gives an insight into life with rocker Rod – and what she finds most ‘sexy’ about him(Image: FilmMagic)\"PennyPenny is a special constable for the City of London police(Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the idea of doing my own gardening<\/a> show, maybe even based out of Durrington,\u201d she tells us, referring to Durrington House, the 18th-century Grade II-listed Hertfordshire estate that she and Rod have shared for 12 years. Spread across over 50 acres, the grounds boast a walled garden, a 48sqm greenhouse, formal topiary, a woodland area and eight beehives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m learning more about different varieties of plants with [our] head gardener. I love being amongst nature. When things are getting too much, if I spend time in some greenery, by a source of water, listening to birds, in the rain or the sunshine, it feels like an injection of goodness. It\u2019s not an everyday thing but I hug trees a lot. Rod and I both do!\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Penny and Rod will give the nation a rare glimpse behind Durrington\u2019s gates as TV host Anita Rani visits their luxurious home for a brand-new series of BBC<\/a> One\u2019s My Life At Christmas.<\/a> Together, the couple reflect on their relationship\u2019s biggest chapters, including first meeting at a Christmas<\/a> party at London\u2019s Dorchester Hotel in December 1998.<\/p>\n

At the time, Penny was studying photography while Rod was a globally famous singer, preparing to separate from ex-wife, New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter. The pair began dating nine months later, although Rod \u2013 then a dad of six \u2013 declared he would never remarry or have more children.<\/p>\n

Years on, that resolve melted away. He and Penny wed in Portofino, Italy, in 2007<\/a>, two years after having their first son Alastair, now 19. Fourteen years ago their second boy, Aiden, followed. Now, long after a bumpy start, navigating the pitfalls of a blended family, they operate as one tight unit.<\/p>\n

\"rodPenny opens up emotionally about her husband’s thoughts on his final resting place(Image: Harry Durrant\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think of all that we\u2019ve gone through, the fact that Rod never imagined he\u2019d be married and have children again, and what a gift it is to have found one another and to have brought this family so close to one another, it brings a lump to my throat,\u201d says Penny, as she ponders the journey they have travelled until now.<\/p>\n

When she chats to OK !, she and Rod are preparing to fill Durrington House with family at Christmas. As well as their two sons, Rod\u2019s children Ruby, Liam and three grandchildren, are flying in from LA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going ice skating, to the theatre, the races, then there\u2019s local pubs and catching up with Rod\u2019s sister Mary, who\u2019s 97 on Boxing<\/a> Day,\u201d says Penny, who has arranged all social engagements over the holidays. \u201cEverything\u2019s booked because if it\u2019s done ahead of time, I don\u2019t stress and just let it unfold, like a gift!\u201d<\/p>\n

One notable absence, however, will be Rod\u2019s daughter Kimberly, 46, who welcomed her second child in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cKimberly\u2019s not coming. She\u2019s staying home with her mum. It\u2019s a very, very new [baby], so she\u2019s going to stay home,\u201d explains Penny, who flew out right after the birth to support her step-daughter. \u201cI was there for three weeks just after bubba was born, so I got lots of cuddles in!\u201d<\/p>\n

Penny smiles as she thinks back to Christmases when her own boys were little. \u201cRod used to dress up as Father Christmas. We\u2019d get him out the back door all dressed up, stuff a pillow up his front, then direct him to walk slowly. I\u2019d say to the kids, \u2018Father Christmas cannot stop at our house if you\u2019re still awake.\u2019 They\u2019d jump in their beds and not get out until the morning!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PennyPenny is a regular contributor to debates on Loose Women(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

Penny is yet to embark on this year\u2019s present-shopping mission, but says Rod\u2019s gifts always demand an extra injection of inspiration and thoughtfulness \u2013 something she executed perfectly a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cRod\u2019s got a great respect for veterans and last Christmas, with Rod turning 80<\/a> and it being 80 years since the end of the Second World War, I got two metal black silhouette figures of soldiers with metal poppies and placed them in the garden. On Christmas morning, we took the dogs<\/a> out for a walk in the garden and he saw his gift nestled out in the fields. He always says, \u2018How do you always find the right thing?!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing her husband as \u201ca true romantic\u201d, Penny reveals that the singer is a connoisseur of surprises too. For her 50th birthday, during lockdown, he bought her a narrowboat after she fell in love with canal boats during daily riverside walks.<\/p>\n

Recently, though, health issues have stalled her adventures on Bluebell. \u201cI\u2019ve neglected her a bit as last year I tore the meniscus in my knee and I\u2019ve injured my Achilles doing a [police] fitness test,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfway through I felt a sharp pain in my right Achilles. Instead of stopping, I kept going because of the adrenaline, and now it\u2019s swollen and I\u2019ve got a limp. It\u2019s really frustrating. I\u2019m looking at other ways of volunteering, while I recover, like The Felix Project, a food redistribution charity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PennyPenny and Rod share two sons together(Image: Dave Benett\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s here that the chat darts to another professional possibility \u2013 training to be a psychotherapist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it would help with policing, because we often have a mental health nurse come out when we\u2019re dealing with someone with mental health issue,\u201d she says, noting that penning her autobiography Someone Like Me <\/a>, which was published in September, was \u201ca little bit\u201d like going through the therapy process.<\/p>\n

More imminently, another milestone is on the horizon \u2013 Penny\u2019s 55th birthday in March. Are any plans in the making? \u201cNo! I\u2019m always thinking about celebrating other people\u2019s [birthdays]. I was so looking forward to my 50th birthday and was going to make it a big one, then it was lockdown, so nothing happened. I got over it, though. It was all right!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rod, loitering in the background during our interview, finds himself drawn into the discussion. \u201cDarling, do you want to plan my 55th birthday for me?\u201d she asks and smiles as she relays his response. \u201cHe said, \u2018Yeah, simple.\u2019 So there you go. He\u2019s a last-minute, impromptu [guy]. He\u2019ll probably go, \u2018Pack your bags. I\u2019m taking you somewhere.\u2019 I like planning ahead and he\u2019s last-minute. So it\u2019s a good combo.<\/p>\n

After 25 years together, Penny and Rod are undisputedly a united force and with Rod touring Europe<\/a> until just before Christmas, then again in the New Year<\/a>, it begs the question: does being frequently apart keep them together?<\/p>\n

\"PennyPenny hit the Strictly dancefloor in 2007(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all take things for granted as time goes by and [absence] allows you a little bit of space to reflect, to start missing someone again and remember why it\u2019s so important to have snuggles on the couch together or coffee mornings after the drop-off,\u201d agrees Penny. \u201c[It\u2019s about] finding little moments, creating little habits and keeping communication going.`\u2019<\/p>\n

Penny also opens up on what she finds most sexy about her other half \u2013 his sense of humour. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously. He also takes so much care and pride in his appearance and how he dresses for me. We dress for each other. And he doesn\u2019t have a lazy bone in his body. THAT\u2019s sexy!\u201d<\/p>\n

With a 26-year age gap and Rod now approaching 81, mortality is a conversation the couple don\u2019t swerve<\/a>. In My Life At Christmas , viewers will see Rod pointing out a cream-columned temple in the garden at Durrington where he intends to be laid to rest. The poignant moment offers insight into the practical mindset of a man who Penny insists \u201chas no plans to retire\u201d.<\/p>\n

She explains: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to talk about the end, but he\u2019s like, \u2018Look, it happens to all of us.\u2019 \u201cHe always says, \u2018I\u2019ve had the best life ever and if it ended tomorrow, I wouldn\u2019t have complaints.\u2019 But his sister\u2019s 97 this year. Why wouldn\u2019t he go to 100?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As Rod himself says in the BBC One programme, \u201cLike the Duke of Edinburgh<\/a>, I like to plan ahead. So this little house is where I\u2019m going to be laid to rest, hopefully. It\u2019s my special place. Penny hates me to talk about it but we all have to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Penny reveals that their dog Bubbles is buried in the gardens, an idea comes to her. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll have a family cemetery, then it has to be in the deed of the property,\u201d she smiles. \u201cYou buy the property, you have to maintain the cemetery of the Stewarts!\u201d<\/p>\n

* Follow Mirror Celebs on Snapchat<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> and Threads<\/a>.<\/p>\n