{"id":10541,"date":"2026-04-15T21:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10541"},"modified":"2026-04-15T21:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:32:37","slug":"rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html","title":{"rendered":"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rod Stewart and Wife: Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After more than two decades together, Penny Lancaster isn\u2019t shy about celebrating the strength of her relationship with Rod Stewart\u2014and she\u2019s doing it with a sense of humor.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Best Magazine<\/em>, the 55-year-old opened up about their 26-year partnership and 18 years of marriage, joking about what it takes to make a relationship last that long. \u201cYes, 26 years! I deserve a medal, don\u2019t I?\u201d she said, before quickly adding, \u201cOnly joking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancaster and Stewart first met in 1999 when she was a student, and they married in 2007. Over the years, they\u2019ve built a blended family, raising two sons together\u2014Alastair Wallace and Aiden Patrick\u2014while Stewart also had six children from previous relationships. With a full household and busy schedules, Lancaster said maintaining their connection takes intentional effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t take each other for granted and make sure we have date nights together \u2026 dinner, the theatre or whatever, doing the school run together and having an \u2018a deux\u2019 coffee on the way home, long romantic walks together,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe flirt with each other and make each other laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

That consistency, she suggests, is key. Rather than letting routine dull their relationship, the couple prioritizes shared moments\u2014both big and small. Whether it\u2019s a quiet coffee after school drop-off or a night out together, they make time to reconnect.<\/p>\n

Lancaster also emphasized the importance of celebrating milestones. \u201cWe\u2019re big on celebrating our anniversaries and really spoil each other,\u201d she said. Those celebrations often come with meaningful touches tied to their history as a couple. \u201cFor instance, for our last wedding anniversary, we took a very romantic train trip from Paris to Portofino because Rod proposed to me in Paris and we got married in Portofino.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lancaster, those moments aren\u2019t just about looking back\u2014they\u2019re about continuing to build something together. \u201cWe love reminiscing about our life together and also making plans for the future \u2014 more romantic trips,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most surprising insight she shared is that time apart can be just as important as time together. According to Lancaster, giving each other space is one of the biggest factors in keeping their relationship strong. Having that independence, she said, \u201creally keeps the spark alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a perspective that may feel counterintuitive in a culture that often emphasizes constant togetherness. But for Lancaster and Stewart, balance seems to be the key\u2014staying connected while also allowing room for individuality.<\/p>\n

After 26 years, Lancaster\u2019s lighthearted \u201cmedal\u201d comment reflects something deeper: a relationship that has endured through intentional effort, mutual appreciation, and a commitment to keep growing together. And if her advice is any indication, lasting love isn\u2019t about grand gestures alone\u2014it\u2019s about showing up, staying engaged, and never taking each other for granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than two decades together, Penny Lancaster isn\u2019t shy about celebrating the strength of her relationship with Rod Stewart\u2014and she\u2019s doing it with a sense of humor. In a recent interview with Best Magazine, the 55-year-old opened up about their 26-year partnership and 18 years of marriage, joking about what it takes to make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":10553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rod Stewart's wife, Penny Lancaster, says she \u201cdeserves a medal\u201d after marking 26 years with the Grammy-winning rock legend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rod Stewart's wife, Penny Lancaster, says she \u201cdeserves a medal\u201d after marking 26 years with the Grammy-winning rock legend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stronger Marriages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T21:32:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/04\/Rod-Stewart-and-Wife_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together","description":"Rod Stewart's wife, Penny Lancaster, says she \u201cdeserves a medal\u201d after marking 26 years with the Grammy-winning rock legend.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together","og_description":"Rod Stewart's wife, Penny Lancaster, says she \u201cdeserves a medal\u201d after marking 26 years with the Grammy-winning rock legend.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html","og_site_name":"Stronger Marriages","article_published_time":"2026-04-15T21:32:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/04\/Rod-Stewart-and-Wife_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html","name":"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/04\/Rod-Stewart-and-Wife_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-15T21:32:37+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-15T21:32:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"Rod Stewart's wife, Penny Lancaster, says she \u201cdeserves a medal\u201d after marking 26 years with the Grammy-winning rock legend.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/04\/Rod-Stewart-and-Wife_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/04\/Rod-Stewart-and-Wife_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Rod Stewart and Wife: Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/04\/rod-stewarts-wife-says-she-deserves-a-medal-after-26-years-together.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rod Stewart\u2019s Wife Says She \u2018Deserves a Medal\u2019 After 26 Years Together"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/","name":"Stronger Marriages","description":"Navigating Faith and Relationships","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10556,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10541\/revisions\/10556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}