Penny Lancaster struggled to carry again tears as she discovered how certainly one of Rod Stewart’s associates tried to cease them from courting – for one shocking purpose. In the course of the first episode of Anita Rani’s festive TV present, the Ceaselessly Younger hitmaker revealed to the Unfastened Girls star {that a} shut good friend withheld her telephone quantity from him till the star was “absolutely healed” from his bitter divorce from mannequin Rachel Hunter. Rocker Rod admitted that his separation from his second spouse left him in bodily ache, admitting that he lastly knew what it was to have a damaged coronary heart.  

Penny and Rod, who’ve been collectively for greater than 20 years, first met when the police officer, 54, was a pupil at Barking Faculty. Shortly after his cut up from spouse Rachel, the 80-year-old musician met Penny after a gig, however his shut good friend Carmine Appice thought he wasn’t in the appropriate headspace to return to courting so quickly.

Due to this, she determined to not move on the blonde bombshell’s telephone quantity till he was emotionally able to return to the courting pool once more. Revealing the entire story on Rani’s present, My Life At Christmas, Rod informed her: “He was an absolute gentleman, he was band chief and bass participant, and he stored her phone away from me.

“He didn’t suppose I used to be in the appropriate place as a result of I had simply bought a divorce and didn’t know if I used to be coming or going, and he stated, ‘I’ll give it to you once I suppose you’re prepared’.

Rod joked: “I ought to have fired him, however I couldn’t!” It was at this level that Penny grew to become overwhelmed with emotion as she chimed in: “Carmine had stored that phone quantity away from him.

“He stated, ‘You’re going to go a bit loopy over the summer time and let your hair down, and Penny looks as if a pleasant lady.” However on the time, she believed she would by no means see the chart-topping singer once more.

She continued: “I actually thought that was the final I might see of Rod. I bear in mind processing these pictures I took of Rod [at the gig] and considering, ‘What a stunning reminiscence,’ and that was that.”

However after just a few months, Rod lastly took the plunge and contacted Penny, and it’s truthful to say the comfortable couple have solely gone from energy to energy. The couple, who share two kids collectively, welcomed their first son in 2005.

Two years later, they walked down the aisle collectively in a lavish ceremony earlier than the arrival of their second son in 2011. Afterward within the present, Penny opened up about what it was wish to enter right into a blended household.

She informed the host: “I tiptoed very frivolously, as a result of there have been plenty of personalities, and extra importantly, there have been kids starting from all ages. From Liam, who was 5 once we met, by means of to youngsters, to Kimberly, who was nearly to show 21, so it was delicate, they usually had been kids from completely different moms.”

She went on: “It was a state of affairs I had by no means confronted earlier than, and I believed, ‘I want to remain within the background however be current and there in the event that they wish to method me’. I simply needed to take my time, and it took a very long time.”

Choking again tears, she continued: “We bought there, and now we have bought to a spot that I by no means thought I might get to with them.” Rod then chimed in with: “I have to admit the youngsters adore her now, they search for her for recommendation.”

Rod met his second spouse, Rachel, when she was simply 21 years outdated, however regardless of their 24-year age hole, the singer went on to tie the knot with the Maggie Could singer and share two kids collectively: Renee and Liam.

However in 1999, Rachel walked away from their marriage, stating that she’d “misplaced her identification”. She later admitted: “I’ll take to the grave the ache I precipitated Rod. I harm the one individual I beloved and cared about.”

Rod definitely didn’t take their separation properly, gushing on the time: “I took to mendacity on the couch within the day, with a blanket over me and a scorching water bottle towards my chest. I knew then why they name it heartbroken. You may really feel it in your coronary heart.”