After 26 years of partnership and 18 years of marriage to Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster says she deserves a medal.
In a new interview with Best Magazine, the 55-year-old mother-of-two opened up about her relationship with the rock legend, revealing how they have “maintained a close relationship” after nearly 20 years of marriage.
“Yes, I’m 26! I deserve a medal, don’t I?” she told the publication, according to the Daily Mail. “I’m just kidding.”
The two met in 1999, when Penny was a student at Barking University.
The two married in 2007 and eventually had two sons, Alastair Wallace and Aiden Patrick.
Stewart was already the father of six children when he married Lancaster.
As a blended family with a busy schedule, Lancaster said it was important for her and her husband to find time for each other.
“We don’t take each other for granted and we make sure to go on dates together… whether it’s dinner, the theater, or anything else. We go to school events together, have the ‘great’ coffee on the way home, and take long romantic walks,” she said. “We flirt with each other and make each other laugh.”
Lancaster said they are “maintaining closeness” by celebrating each other and the big milestones they have achieved in their relationship.
“We love celebrating anniversaries and we really value each other,” she said. “For example, on our last wedding anniversary, we took a very romantic train trip from Paris to Portofino, because Rod proposed in Paris and we got married in Portofino. We love reminiscing about our life together and planning for the future. It’s a more romantic trip.”
But what is the biggest secret of their success? There is “time away,” Lancaster says.
Lancaster said it really “keeps the spark alive.”
