London - As most parents know only too well, having children in the house can be something of a passion-killer.
But as a former rock-and-roll lothario, Rod Stewart is determined not to let family life get in the way of romance.
The 68-year-old has revealed he sleeps with wife Penny Lancaster “three quality times” a week and regularly whisks her away on holiday so they can spend more time alone.
He said he hires a nanny to take care of the children and takes lingerie model Miss Lancaster, 42, to their £3-million beach house in Florida where he seduces her with “champagne and candlelight”.
“You’ve got to understand when you’ve got two small kids and you’re both in bed and your son comes home through the door and says mom! dad! – We’ve got to fit it in between the children,” he said.
“Four of them live with me and although it’s a massive house it’s very noisy. We go to Florida three or four times a year and that’s probably when I get my leg over the most.”
Stewart, who has two children with third wife Lancaster and a further six with former partners, also revealed that domestic life at the couple’s Beverly Hills home involves chores, cleaning and the school run – albeit with a bit more glamour than most of us can muster.
He admitted his children were too embarrassed to be driven to school in his Ferrari, so he now drops them off in a Rolls Royce.
In a remarkably frank interview with American radio personality Howard Stern, Stewart said: “I’m up at 7.30 every morning, I drive the kids to school in the Rolls. I love my Rolls Royce. I used to take Sean in my Ferrari and he hated it. He’d say ‘please don’t stop right outside the school’ but I would.
‘”went to a parent-teacher meeting last week and I read for [son] Alastair’s class too. I don’t do any house cleaning though, that’s one thing I don’t do.
“It’s funny if the dog does a deposit somewhere and I go and pick it up I’m always thinking I bet Elton John doesn’t have to do this.
“No, I do chip in and do my bit of house cleaning.”
But Stewart admitted struggling to navigate the “fine line” between “spoiling and depriving” children Sarah, 50, Kimberly, 33, Sean, 32, Ruby, 25, Renee, 20, Liam, 18, Alastair, seven, and Aiden, three.
He said: “I like to give them a little help investing [in] their careers. But give them piles of cash? No. Because then they just get lazy.”
Lancaster and Stewart married in 2007 and have been together for more than 13 years. He was previously married to Alana Hamilton, now 67, and model Rachel Hunter, 43.
But Stewart, who once admitted he slept with so many groupies in his 20s that he lost count, said: “I am a different man now. I was a rock star, that’s what you do. But I never really got into orgies. I tried it with a couple of Japanese girls a long time ago and I found it all a bit disappointing and distracting.”
He described himself as a romantic, enjoying “candlelight and glass of champagne” and said: “I think I’ve grown up a lot in the past ten years.”
He added: “I’ve had my failures, but if I may say I’m always very kind and I treat women with a great deal of respect when we get intimate like that.” - Daily Mail