Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster once made a pact “never to spend more than 10 days apart.”
The couple are said to be desperate to keep their 17-year marriage going after the singer abandoned plans to sell his $74 million Beverly Hills mansion and return to the UK permanently.
The 79-year-old British veteran rocker refuses to leave LA, and 53-year-old Penny is furious and doesn’t want to stay in the US, even though Rod has extended his stay in Las Vegas and turned down two offers for their sprawling estate.
In a resurfaced clip from a 2017 episode of Loose Women, Penny gave insight into long-distance relationships and revealed that she and her husband once vowed never to spend too much time apart.
She told the ITV show: “He’s still working hard and he’s not going to retire any time soon.”
Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster once made a pact to “never spend more than 10 days apart,” but now they are at loggerheads over his decision not to return to Britain (symbolic image).
The couple are said to be currently working on their 17-year marriage after the singer backed out of plans to sell his $74 million Beverly Hills mansion and return to the UK permanently (pictured two weeks ago).
Penny continued: “For the first year of our relationship, he was in America and I was in the UK, I was still studying at college, so we were apart.”
“I thought that if this works, it will be a very solid foundation and will put us in a better position later on.”
“But today, when the kids are still at school and Rod is working, we’ve decided not to be apart for more than ten days. The longest we were apart was two weeks and we thought, ‘That’s too much, we can’t do that.'”
Recalling their first meeting on Loose Women in 2015, Penny told how a friend “challenged” her to go up to him at a concert and ask for his autograph.
“The next day I got an invitation to photograph him at a concert because I was in college at the time,” she said.
Rod explained: “I got her phone number and gave it to my bass player, but he held onto it for six months. I had just gone through a breakup and he said I wasn’t ready.”
“I called her six months later.”
Penny continued: “The funny thing is, when I was allowed to photograph him, I thought he was asking me out of the goodness of his heart. Then he called me six months later and said, ‘I’d love to see the photos you took.'”
In a resurfaced 2017 Loose Women clip, Penny gave insight into long-distance relationships and revealed how she and Rod once vowed never to spend too much time apart
She said: Penny continued: “The first year of our relationship, he was in America and I was in the UK, I was still studying at college, so we had this separation… it was too much.”
Recalling their first meeting on Loose Women in 2015, Penny revealed how she was “challenged” by a friend to go up to him at a concert and ask for his autograph.
Rod explained: “I got her phone number and gave it to my bass player, but he kept it for six months. I had just gone through a breakup and he said I wasn’t ready.”
On Wednesday, DailyMail.com learned that the couple are now at a standoff as Rod refuses to leave LA and Penny refuses to stay after he extended his stay in Las Vegas and turned down two offers for the sprawling nine-bedroom property just over a month ago.
“Rod loves his life in LA and flies back and forth to Vegas for his performances,” said a well-informed insider. “He spends quality time with his grandchildren and hosts a banquet dinner at home almost every Sunday night for a group of his best friends.”
Rod announced his plans to move to his native UK in June 2023, when he listed his 3,000-square-foot Beverly Hills estate – which also includes a three-story guest house, swimming pool and full-size soccer field – for sale for $70 million.
In December, he raised the asking price to $80 million before reducing it by another $6 million in February, leaving the price at $74 million.
But the rocker has since taken the property off the market, leaving Penny – who regularly appears on the British panel show Loose Women, works as an auxiliary police officer for the City of London Police and considers the British countryside her “home” – furious.
“Penny has no plans to return to LA as she is not a fan of it and Rod has no plans to move back there at the moment,” the insider continued.
“They’re at a stalemate and Penny is angry that Rod went back on his word. Now it’s about saving their marriage.”
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Stewart and Lancaster for comment.
Rod, who moved to LA in 1975, paid $12 million for the property on which he built his stately yellow villa in 1991 after persuading Californian star architect Richard Landry.
The property features 12 bathrooms, a huge formal dining room for over 20 guests, a speakeasy, a movie theater, a wood-paneled library, a wine cellar, two gyms, an eat-in kitchen, a tea room – and also currently houses his 1,500 sq. ft. model railway.
On Wednesday, DailyMail.com learned that the couple are now at an “impasse”: Rod refuses to leave LA and Penny refuses to stay after extending his stay in Las Vegas.
“Penny has no plans to return to LA, which she is not a fan of, while Rod has no plans to move back at the moment,” the insider said
Last June, he confirmed his return to the UK, citing his sons’ education as one of the main reasons.
“The chances of me selling it are very, very slim because I really love it, so if I don’t get the right price, I’m not going to sell it,” he told Chris Evans on Virgin Radio.
“I love Los Angeles and the Americans have always been very nice to me, but it’s time to go. My two sons (17 and 12) go to school here (UK).”
The Grammy winner planned to make his palatial Essex estate, known as Durrington House, his permanent residence. He and Lancaster bought the 10-bedroom, 18th-century property in 2016.
