ROD STEWART’S WIFE PENNY: I WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A FASHION DESIGNER
MODEL Penny Lancaster wept on TV yesterday as she told how she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by a fashion designer.
The wife of pop star Sir Rod Stewart said her drink was “spiked” before she found herself face down on a bed with the man on top of her.
Breaking down in tears, the 46-year-old told ITV’s Loose Women: “I can’t remember much of what happened. I just know he was on top of me and enjoying the experience. I certainly wasn’t. I don’t really remember much more and I was too afraid to tell anyone.”
She said she was a virgin at the time and had gone to the man’s house after he promised to take her to a fashion event attended by top industry figures.
Penny said: “I had a job with a fashion designer and they took me on for a particular job and then they offered me an opportunity to meet some other people at an event they were going to and would I like to go.
“I was like, ‘Oh, someone will be interested. I might get some more work’. That’s what you’re out there doing the modelling for, so I went with him. And he said, ‘Oh, I have to stop at my apartment’.”
She said he poured her a drink while he went to collect his things for the event, adding: “The next thing I knew I found myself face down on a bed with him on top of me. I couldn’t tell my mum and dad because I thought they would be saying to me, ‘What on earth were you doing going back to his house?’ But he was a guy I had worked with and so I was naive and I trusted him.”
Penny said she hoped speaking out about her ordeal would help young women to understand that being a victim of a sexual predator was “not their fault”. She added: “They are not guilty. The other person is. And they need to be brave enough to tell the authorities.”
Penny spoke of her ordeal as the MeToo campaign, launched following allegations of sexual assault by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, gained strength. It has led thousands of women to post messages on social media about sexual predators.
She added of her attacker: “Like with the series Liar, my drink was drugged. I had never had sex at that point so it was a frightening thing. You try to pretend it never happened.” ITV drama Liar featured two characters claiming the other was lying after the man raped his date after spiking her drink.
Penny urged mothers to support their daughters who face a similar ordeal, adding: “I want to make them aware; let them know they should come to you if anybody touches them.”