Penny Lancaster has revealed intimate details of a huge outburst that left her husband, British rock star Rod Stewart, “shocked”.
After a turbulent experience with menopause during the Covid lockdown, the former model revealed that the condition also impacted her relationship with the 79-year-old singer, who was recently booed over his support for Ukraine.
Lancaster said that her fellow Loose Women hosts were forced to stage an intervention as they encouraged her to get help. After a misdiagnosis of depression, she was eventually told she was menopausal.
But the 53-year-old has now shared the details of a particularly explosive outburst that took place in her family home, as she reeled from the distressing impact of the physical and mental symptoms of the condition, in a new interview with The Times.
“I remember, I was calling and calling them to come down for dinner. They finally came down… The two boys and Rod,” she began.
“And I picked up the plates and I threw them across the kitchen. Which is an outrageous thing to think of — who the hell would throw the dinner? But the physical act [was hard to stop]… Because I couldn’t contain it any more.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I didn’t want to hurt myself. But I felt like it was getting to that point. Hurting myself. Hurting someone.”
Lancaster believes that the outburst was a cry for help as her frustration at the situation reached its limit.
“I threw these plates of food across the kitchen as hard as I could, to make as much noise as I could. As if the noise… as if someone would wake up, someone would notice me, someone would have the answer.”
Although the plates did not hit anyone, she recalls that the incident came as a shock to her family.
“It ended up redecorating the kitchen. I collapsed on the floor in a heap, burst into tears, shaking in the corner. Of course, it was an absolute shock to Rod and the boys.”
“Forever Young” singer Stewart, who has recently admitted that he has never been with any of his partners long enough to see them go through menopause, was instrumental in supporting Lancaster through the difficult period.
The pair first started dating in 1999, when she was 28 and he was 54. Stewart had been married twice before and had six children with four women by that point. They eventually married and share two sons.
“Rod just went, ‘Boys, in the other room. Leave Mummy.’ He came over and said, ‘It’s all right, darling. It’s OK, it’s OK.’ I was shaking. ‘I can’t do this. What the hell is going on with me?’ I thought I was going mad.
“Rod said, ‘Right, we’ve got to get you to the doctor’s. You can’t carry on like this. There’s got to be an answer. There’s got to be something.’”
Lancaster has since become a menopause activist, and is heavily involved with the work of Menopause Mandate, an organisation that seeks to raise awareness about the condition.
She said was “deflated” after the government rejected a proposal to trial menopause leave.
