How Penny brought Rod to heel... by befriending his exes, playing mum to all EIGHT of his children - and even giving him pedicures 

• e-mail

Has there ever been a more conspicuously happy third marriage? Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster have just celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary and barely a week goes by without some kind of reminder of their mutual adoration.

From Rod photobombing his wife’s latest Hello! shoot to Penny posting a picture of her and Rod’s daughters and granddaughter ‘roaring’ with pride at his knighthood, there is no doubt that in Penny the once notorious womaniser has finally found a blonde worth being faithful to.

Indeed Rod, 71, who has spent decades as a proud Lothario, now says he has hung up his leopard-print thong for good. ‘I’ve still got plenty of lead in the old pencil,’ he crowed recently. ‘But these days I only write to one person.’

Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster have just celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary and barely a week goes by without some kind of reminder of their mutual adoration

Yesterday, there was another demonstration of affection from the pair as they cuddled up together while drinking coffee in Bel Air, California. Afterwards, they went for a spin in the rocker’s white Ferrari 458 Spider, with Penny behind the wheel of the £200,000 supercar.

So what is the secret of their mutual happiness? And how has Penny pulled off the hugely difficult challenge that floors most rock-star wives? Namely, of making friends with all her husband’s exes and tribe of children by previous relationships.

Feminists would have a field day, but the answer seems to be found in the simple fact that Penny does whatever Rod wants.

Lancaster, the daughter of middle-class parents from Essex, met Rod when she was a photography student at Barking College and he was overcoming his heartbreak after being left by model Rachel Hunter.

From the start, she set out to prove that she would not only be his greatest cheerleader but that, in her, he had found Pliable Penny.

In the early years of their romance, Rod, who is worth £160 million but has a reputation for parsimony, wanted her to get a job and buy her own flat. She did both. He then insisted that he didn’t want to get married again. Ever.

Penny, though, just smiled sweetly, hung on, and managed to change his mind.

Yesterday, there was another demonstration of affection from the pair as they cuddled up together while drinking coffee in Bel Air, California

After their engagement, she noted: ‘I think one day he woke up and decided that here was a woman he didn’t want to let go. He knew my feelings. We were honest with each other. We got there in the end.’

She even managed to overlook the incredibly awkward fact that Rod was still married to Rachel Hunter (they had split seven years before) at the time of the proposal.

Today, she has merged her personality perfectly with his. Rod’s friends (decades her senior) are her friends, and she happens to love everything that he enjoys.

She greatly admires his impressive collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings which cover the walls of his LA home, saying that it is her favourite school of art.

The couple went for a spin in the rocker’s white Ferrari 458 Spider, with Penny behind the wheel of the £200,000 supercar

She also knows better than to be anything other than politely thrilled about his consuming passion for model railways.

Penny even takes care of his pedicures, giving him a natty green and white design a couple of weeks ago — the colours of his favourite football team, Celtic.

Perhaps most significantly, during her years at his side she has turned herself into a clone of Rod’s previous leggy blonde girlfriends.

On their first date, Rod remembered in his autobiography, Penny wore trousers, a jacket and a top ‘that concealed all trace of cleavage’. Now, aware of her husband’s tastes, she wears tiny skirts to show off her spectacular tanned legs, and looks every inch the rock wife.

She has her hair cut and coloured — ever blonder, of course — at the same salon he favours. They treat it as a date.

 On their first date, Rod remembered in his autobiography, Penny wore trousers, a jacket and a top ‘that concealed all trace of cleavage’

There are frequent date nights, too, at exclusive restaurants — The Ivy in London and the Colombe d’Or, in the South of France.

And lest anyone doubt that she has the patience of a saint, she gamely submits to being hailed by Tannoy for dinner when in LA — apparently it saves him straining his voice to be heard if she is elsewhere in their colossal mansion when the appointed hour arrives.

And while Rachel didn’t like sitting down at a beautifully laid table and dressing for a proper dinner with fine wine, Penny, 45, loves it.

She calls her husband ‘Roddy’ and appears not to turn a hair at even his more sexist pronouncements which have included: ‘I’m very, very lucky to have such a gorgeous woman at my side who likes to have lots of sex with me.’

Lancaster, the daughter of middle-class parents from Essex, met Rod when she was a photography student at Barking College

For his part, Rod manages to stay unruffled over her twice monthly appearances on the rather downmarket ITV chat show Loose Women.

She has shared gems including talking about their habit of getting frisky in the back of limos, saying that she wears a red string around her wrist to warn Rod she might be testy before she gets her period, and revealing that she has thoroughly enjoyed having her husband suck her toes.

In this week’s issue of Hello! magazine, Penny is as ever at pains to present a very united front with Rod.

She tells how they recently decided to move back to the UK — Rod has been a tax exile in LA since 1975 when tax was at 83p in the £1 — in order to allow their children Alastair, ten, and Aiden, five, to attend English schools.

A new house has been bought and Rod’s beloved Wood House, which he has owned for three decades, was reluctantly sold. The new place, Grade II-listed and also in Essex, was bought for £4.5 million and has ten bedrooms and a five-a-side football pitch.

It is closer to the boys’ schools and is far smaller, meaning the upkeep is less expensive and requires only a handful of staff.

Penny said that she always thinks of herself as having eight children because all Rod’s kids are so much a part of her life

Rod credits Penny with being rather brilliant at fusing his large brood

Penny said: ‘It was a big leap. Until last year we lived like a kind of nomadic tribe. The kids divided their time between schools in LA and the UK. We were constantly on the move. Rod and I decided that the boys needed consistency and we agreed that the schools in the UK are better.’

She added: ‘We made the right decision for them.’

However, there has clearly been some compromise. For it turns out that Rod hasn’t actually moved permanently to the UK at all.

His publicist confirmed this week that he remains principally resident in America.

The plan is for him to be in the UK for as much of the 30 weeks of his sons’ term time as he can — he’s in Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, performing this weekend and has tour dates in America in September.

He will be back in the UK throughout November on tour. Publicist Moira Bellas said: ‘Rod confirmed to me that the United States continues to be his principal residence, as it has been for decades.’

Aware of her husband’s tastes, Penny now wears tiny skirts to show off her spectacular tanned legs, and looks every inch the rock wife

Why does this matter? Well, it matters an awful lot in terms of tax — if Rod spends more than six months of the year in the UK, it means he becomes liable for UK tax on all of his global income. As things stand, he is only liable for tax on income earned in the UK.

It’s a difference which probably boils down to around £4 million a year, possibly more.

He’s not keen to shout about his living arrangements, possibly because it’s a little unusual for tax exile Brits to be bestowed with knighthoods.

Happily for all concerned, though, Penny is happy to entertain an unusual situation in which she ‘moves back to the UK’ but her husband does not.

She explained: ‘Rod has such strong ties with LA, with both family and work. He does his recording there, regularly tours the U.S. and has his residency in Vegas. So when he’s not in the UK, which is just over half the year, the boys and I have to catch up with him in the school holidays.’

Indeed, some of Rod’s attachment to Los Angeles lies in the fact that his older children are chiefly based there. He is said to be determined to be a good father to them now that they are young adults as he feels he failed them when they were younger.

Son Sean, 35, and daughter Kimberly, 36 (by first wife Alana Hamilton), plus granddaughter Delilah, five, live in Rod’s huge house in LA. Both are said to be in receipt of a £10,000-a-month allowance.

Penny’s first Christmas with Rod was attended by ex-wives Rachel Hunter and Alana Hamilton

Also based in the U.S. is daughter Ruby, 29, by model Kelly Emberg. She sings in her band The Sisterhood and has been supporting Rod on tour.

His children by Rachel Hunter — Renee, 24, and Liam, 21 — are based in the UK. Renee has just graduated from the London Contemporary School of Dance and Liam plays ice hockey for the Coventry Blaze team.

Rod’s first child is Sarah Streeter, 52, born when her mother Susannah was an art student and he was trying to make a career in rock music. They were estranged for many years but are now happily reconciled.

When Penny first came on the scene, the family would gather for big holidays.

Very much like Jerry Hall, who has remained friendly with all of Mick Jagger’s other women and been a uniting force for his children, Penny has proved rather brilliant at fusing Rod’s large brood.

As she said in an interview: ‘Two kids are the perfect number for me, although I always think of us as having eight children because all Rod’s kids are so much a part of our lives, like a one big extended family.’

Rod claims that he couldn't ask for a better wife and that 'she's not bad looking either'

It’s not been easy. Penny’s first Christmas with Rod was attended by ex-wives Rachel Hunter and Alana Hamilton.

Rod demurred: ‘I don’t know how it happened. It was an accident.’ He added: ‘I call it the evening of the three blondes and a turkey.’

Despite the undoubted early awkwardness, particularly with Rachel Hunter, everyone manages to get along.

Rod said: ‘Penny literally did bring us [the family] all together. For some of the kids when she first came into my life, they obviously thought “Money grabber” or whatever and [were] protecting their dad, which is quite normal.

‘But she’s won them over entirely now. She’s a great girl. I won’t say we always agree, but we get along.’

By the time Kimberly had her daughter Delilah in 2011, Penny was so accepted that she was among those in the delivery room.

Rod attributes her successes to being ‘just a jolly person trying to make everybody happy’.

But there is one thing she makes sure of — that Rod always comes first. ‘I try to split my time between my eldest child — Rod — and my two other boys,’ she jokes.

There will be a tremendous show of family pride at Rod’s investiture this October. This will be followed next summer by a complete re-run of their wedding ten years ago in Portofino, Italy.

As Rod says with undiluted pride: ‘I couldn’t ask for a better wife. She’s not bad looking, either.’