Rod Stewart’s wife reveals why she nearly divorced him

Penny Lancaster didn’t think this sentiment was all that sexy.

Rod Stewart’s wife, 54, revealed that at one point, the couple almost called it quits over the 80-year-old singer’s disinterest in having more kids.

“Yes [I would have left him]. And that would have been very hard,” she told British magazine Saga in an interview published on Monday. “But we just went with the flow.”

“Now Rod always says, ‘I wish I’d said yes [to babies] earlier, because then we could have had more children,’” she explained.

Up until five years ago, Lancaster said she and Stewart had looked into adopting, but “it ended up not happening.”

“We thought there might be too much of an age gap,” she explained.

The couple tied the knot in 2007, and are parents to sons Alastair, 19, and Aiden, 14.

Stewart is also dad to daughter Sarah, 61, whom he and ex-girlfriend Susannah Boffey placed for adoption as teenagers, son Sean, 45, and daughter Kimberly, 46, with his ex-wife Alana Stewart, daughter Ruby, 38, with ex-girlfriend Kelly Emberg and daughter Renee, 33, and son Liam, 31, with ex-wife Rachel Hunter.

Lancaster teased that she’s actually a mom of three boys, since Stewart is “a big baby who needs my attention in a different way. I think all women would say that about their husbands.”

Getting candid about her and Stewart’s eldest son, the television personality noted the aspiring filmmaker is “a gorgeous boy, but also very kind and very polite like his father.”

Lancaster and Stewart renewed their vows in honor of their 10 year wedding anniversary in 2017, and opted to donate money in lieu of gifts to the victims of the Grenfell fire.

More than 70 people were killed after a blaze destroyed a block of apartments in London that June.

All of Stewart’s kids were in attendance for the special day.

“Penny is my whole world. What a girl,” Stewart told HELLO! at the time. “Love means many things to many people but to me it’s wanting to share everything with the one you love and I love Penny more now than ever, if that is at all possible. It was a beautifully romantic thing to do. We’re not proving anything, just sharing our love with our friends and family.”

In 2021, Stewart gushed over fatherhood, telling People that he’s happiest when he sees “my kids and my wife with big smiles on their faces.”

“I have to be several different fathers because of the different age groups of my kids,” admitted Stewart. “You really have to treat all of them as individuals with individual problems. For instance, my 15-year-old is dating girls, so I had to give him a sex lesson. I just told him what he should and shouldn’t do, but he’s on top of it. He was like, ‘Dad, I’ve got the internet. I know everything.’”

The musician recalled, “All the [older] kids went through their little bad period of drinking too much and dabbling in drugs — except for Liam; I don’t think he ever did — but they all came out on the other side. As a dad, I’ve learned to listen and not blow my top.”

Stewart also touched on the key to his successful marriage, emphasizing intimacy as the defining factor.

“I’m not talking about sex, but a kiss and a cuddle and a hold,” he stated. “Penny and I do that every morning. We hug each other — sometimes in bed, sometimes out of bed, all throughout the day. It’s a wonderful relationship. Lucky geezer, aren’t I?”

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” the icon detailed.

In 2023, Stewart confessed to being a “lenient” dad.

“I don’t think I’m as strict with my kids as my mom and dad — especially my dad — were,” he told Haute Living at the time. “I’m very lenient with them. None have gotten into any serious trouble. A couple dabbled with drugs, but that’s all done now. I’m very proud of them all.”

Stewart sweetly added that when he’s on the road touring, he misses his family “so much,” and that his loved ones are “a wonderful luxury” when he returns home.