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It’s been quite the 24 hours for Sir Rod Stewart after the BBC announced MasterChef host Gregg Wallace would be stepping down from his role.
The host of the long-running cookery competition series, 60, will leave the franchise after being hit with historic allegations of misconduct.
After hearing the news, Maggie May singer Sir Rod, 79, immediately took to social media to brand Gregg a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’.
The newly-revealed 2025 Glastonbury star dedicated the post to his wife Penny Lancaster after she reportedly clashed with Greg on the MasterChef set.
Penny, 53, made it into the latter stages of the competition in 2021 before missing out on the semi-final – and tensions were seemingly running high.
Sir Rod accused Gregg of ‘humiliating’ Penny and then having the footage ‘cut’ from the show, although the truth of the incident is not yet clear.
When did Sir Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster meet?
Sir Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster first met each other in 1999, around the time of his 18th studio album When We Were the New Boys.
In support of the record, which reached number two in the UK charts, Sir Rod – 54 at the time – embarked on the All Rod, All Night, All the Hits Tour, playing over 100 shows.
Penny – 28 at the time – asked if she could photograph Sir Rod while he toured, and the You Wear It Well hitmaker agreed, eventually sparking a romance between them.
The pair dated for seven years amid Sir Rod’s separation and subsequent divorce from his second wife, Rachel Hunter.
In November 2005, the couple welcomed their first child, Alistair Wallace, shortly after getting engaged. Wedding plans were soon made after Sir Rod proposed in Paris.
Inside Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster’s wedding
The pair were married in June 2007 and they picked a suitably picturesque location to do it – taking over a medieval monastery for the day.
That monastery – which is also where Wayne and Coleen Rooney were married – is located in the beautiful seaside town of Portofino, which looks out over the Italian Riviera.
Penny opted for a strapless dress which had been designed by Manuel Mota, while Sir Rod went with a traditional and smart black and white suit.
Ten years on from that day, the couple renewed their vows but decided to stay at home in Essex this time, preferring to keep Portofino special.
Sir Rod had initially said they were going to ‘go to Italy and do it all over again’ but presumably changed his mind along the way.
What have Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster said about their marriage?
In 2021, Sir Rod Stewart described his wife Penny Lancaster as ‘the most gorgeous woman’ in an interview with the Loose Women panel.
He told them: ‘She is absolutely the most gorgeous woman I have ever had in my life.’
In another interview with the Press Association, Sir Rod spoke of how he write a song for Penny during the pandemic.
He said: ‘The first time it went around it went right over her head until I said, “You have to listen to the lyrics, my love.” Then she got it.’
Sir Rod was referring to the song I Can’t Imagine, which was taken from his 32nd studio album Tears of Hercules, released in 2021.
Do Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster share any children?
Sir Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster had been dating for six years when they welcomed their first child, son Alistair Wallace, into the world in November 2005.
The couple then married in June 2007, when Alistair was 18 months old, and made plans to have a second child in the late 2000s.
However, the couple experienced fertility issues, eventually receiving treatment that helped them welcome a second son Aiden Patrick.
Aiden was born in 2011. At the time, Sir Rod said: ‘Aiden was a little while in the making. We tried for two years – specialists recommended that we try IVF.’
He wrote in his memoir: ‘We had three rounds of IVF in all, which is physically very punishing for the woman and heartbreaking when it doesn’t work.
‘Still, we kept on going. I was on tour in Moscow in the summer of 2010 when Penny phoned to say she was finally pregnant, and we both wept for joy.’
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