Rod splashes out on son’s dream
SIR Rod Stewart is splashing out on a huge swimming pool at his new home to help his young son fulfil his dream of becoming an Olympic champion.
The rocker’s 11-year-old son Alastair has shown great promise and already won a host of competitions.
Sir Rod, 72, and his wife Penny Lancaster, have told how Alastair is aiming to compete for Great Britain at the Olympics.
Now the couple are giving him a home training base in the new pool house at Grade II-listed Durrington House in Harlow, Essex.
Sporty
The project – a 50ft pool with changing facilities, a bar, a spa pool and a dining area – got the green light from Epping Forest District Council.
It is part of an extensive programme of planned renovations at the £5million 18th-century mansion, which also boasts a rose garden, croquet lawn, ornamental pond and guest cottages. Rod is already building a football pitch in the grounds.
Sporty Alastair is following in the footsteps of big brother Liam, 22, recently part of the victorious Great Britain ice hockey team at the World Championships. His mother is Rod’s ex-wife, Rachel Hunter.
Sir Rod, a father of eight, recently told how he would like Alastair to be a footballer while Penny, 46, has other ideas. He said: “He is a great swimmer. His mum loves swimming and wants him to be a champion.”
Penny, who also has six-year-old son Aiden with Rod, said: “Alastair is an amazing swimmer – he inherits that from my side – and gets up four times a week at 5.30am to swim before school.
“His goal, he says, is to swim in the Olympics.”
And Aiden? “He wants to be just like his big brother,” she added. The pool house and dining area plans, left, will help the ambitions of young Alastair, right, pictured with Rod and mum Penny when the rocker was knighted last year