When Rod Steward met Penny Lancaster

By his side is wife Penny Lancaster, a model, television personality and philanthropist, who met the star in an unusual way – she was dared by her friend to ask for his autograph 26 years ago!

Stewart, famous for his gritty vocals, is one of the best-selling singers in history, having received the World Music Awards’ first ever diamond award in 2001 for selling more than 100 million records globally. He was awarded a CBE in Queen Elizabeth II’s 2007 New Year honours and a knighthood in her 2016 Birthday honours, recognising his contributions to music and charity and celebrating a career that started at the age of 16.

Early careers

On leaving William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School in Muswell Hill, London, Stewart had an unsuccessful audition with his first band, The Raiders, in 1961, for record producer Joe Meek. Undeterred, he busked all over the capital and in 1964 was head hunted by blues singer Long John Baldry, who touted him to record companies. Earning £35 a week performing under the name Rod “The Mod” Stewart, he was able to give up his day job.

In 1967, he had his big break after joining rock band the Jeff Beck Group, as he was signed by Mercury Records as a solo artist in October 1968 as a result, going on to front The Faces in 1969 and reaching global fame in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Born in Chelmsford, Essex, in March 1971, Penny Lancaster had a very different career path. Learning ballet, tap and modern dance from the age of six, she grew too tall to become a professional dancer at just over 6ft and gave up her dream at 16. Instead, she spent six years studying as a certified fitness trainer, but was spotted by a talent scout for a modelling agency and enjoyed a new career.

In the late 1990s, she decided to stay in the industry at the other side of the lens and became a photographer instead, although she carried on modelling and was the face of designer lingerie brand Ultimo for two years.

Where did they meet?

In the late 1990s, then in his 50s, Stewart was enjoying international music fame, but his romantic life had been less successful, as he had already been in several failed relationships and had six children with different partners. He had married his second wife, Rachel Hunter, in 1990 and although they didn’t officially divorce until 2006, they were together for only nine years when she ended the relationship. Describing how this “knocked him for six”, the singer began partying with friends, but he was deeply hurt by the break-up. However, in January 1999, his life was to change forever.

The first famous meeting between Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster took place at a party at the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair. At the time, Lancaster, 27, was studying photography at Barking College in Essex. A friend dared her to approach Stewart at the party and ask for his autograph, and as a result of their conversation, he offered her a job as his tour photographer.

In an interview in 2015, Stewart said he had asked Lancaster for her phone number and gave it to his bass player for safe keeping. However, he had just broken up with Hunter, and his bandmate didn’t think he was emotionally ready to date again. As a result, he hid the phone number away for six months and refused to give it to Stewart!

The singer finally tracked down Lancaster and called her to invite her out for dinner. At the time, she had been in a long-term relationship herself and wasn’t ready for another one. Speaking to The Express in 2021, Lancaster admitted she just wanted to have fun at first. “I didn’t make a point of wondering what was going to happen in the future,” she told reporters.

The fact Stewart didn’t call her for six months after they first met gave her mixed feelings. Although she was aware he had just come out of a relationship, so felt it may be a “grace period”, she began to think he wasn’t into her. She also believed he had offered her a photography job “out of the kindness of his heart”.

Once he called to invite her on a date, despite neither of them looking for anything serious, a romance developed. She described their first kiss as “the most romantic” she had ever experienced.

Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster wedding

Lancaster said it helped that they had a long distance relationship at first. She was still studying photography as a mature student, while Stewart lived in the United States, so she would fly out to see him during holidays from college. Over time, she realised she wanted children herself, but feared that Stewart, already a father-of-six, may not want any more.

He later admitted he hadn’t considered having more kids, but the 9/11 tragedy changed his views on life and his own future. On 11th September 2004, the third anniversary of the incident, the couple had been sitting by a lake, enjoying an autumnal afternoon in England, when they started talking about how many families had been destroyed by the tragedy and the children who had been orphaned. The singer suddenly realised he did want to be a father again.

In March 2005, he proposed during a romantic dinner in the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, Paris, after first asking her father’s permission. They welcomed their first child, Alastair, in late 2005. Following a two-year engagement, the couple married in 2007 in a picturesque rose-strewn chapel in Santa Margherita, on the Italian Riviera. They welcomed their second son, Aiden, in 2011, with Stewart recalling how he was on tour in Russia in summer 2010, when he received a call from his wife to say she was pregnant again, causing them both to “weep with joy”.

They renewed their wedding vows in 2017 and are still going strong, living across two continents, with homes in Essex and Los Angeles.