A new ‘manny’ in her life makes her happy
Penny Lancaster, now Lady Stewart thanks to her husband’s elevation to Sir Rod Stewart earlier this year, is sharing the secret of happy family life.
And (whisper) a lot of it’s because of the new man in her life. A third person has entered their rock ’n’ roll marriage and she doesn’t know how she ever coped without him.
“Greg is our manny, our male nanny, and he’s perfect for my boys,” beams Lancaster, 45. The boys are her rambunctious sons Alistair, 10, and five-year-old Aiden.
A former phys-ed teacher, he’s “full of energy and at the age of 29 has the stamina to exhaust Alistair in particular. Before I had my two sons, I had no idea that boys were always — and I do mean always — on the go.”
Lancaster met Stewart in 1999 when she took photographs of him on tour. They married in 2007.
Stewart, who has six other children from his previous relationships, is 71, though she is rather sweetly prone to referring to him as her “boy” as well.
But back to Greg, who does indeed sound like a godsend. He plays sports with hearty enthusiasm, he cooks and ensures that the lads help with washing up, too.
“The boys have me and their grandmother — my mom, Sally, who has a room in our house — as well as Rod’s 88-year-old Auntie Mary, who comes most days,” Lancaster says. “The last thing they needed was another woman telling them what to do — which is why we have a dude.”
Not just a dude, either — but a gentleman who impresses on his charges that however old-fashioned it might sound, chivalry is a crucial component of any modern man’s skill set.
“Manners are really very important to me,” Lancaster says. “The boys see their dad standing up if I leave the table, paying me compliments, asking about my day and treating me nicely. They understand women are not only equals but should be respected, and if they ever want to date a girl they should first charm her mother with politeness. It’s a shoo-in after.”
Then she adds, dryly: “Rod’s always opening doors for me, but I usually tell him to walk through first. Otherwise, if we’re at a restaurant, the paparazzi end up getting a big giant close-up of me and then he’s trailing behind looking like my little child!”
Lancaster and Stewart recently moved their main base from the U.S. so their sons could be educated in the U.K.
They travel a lot and still have homes in the U.S. and France. Stewart has no intention of retiring, she says: “He’s not running out of energy anytime soon,” she says, and he has regular checkup. The recent deaths of David Bowie at 69, and Prince at 57, gave him pause for thought, she says.
Because most of Stewart’s work is in the U.S., they can both be away for days at a time, knowing the grandparents will hold fort.
“If I come back and it’s late in the evening, I’ll go in to kiss Alistair goodnight and if he’ll sleepily say, ‘Hello, Mommy, you look nice. Did you have a good time?’ ” grins Lancaster. “Then I feel a surge of pride that I’m doing something right. I love my three boys.”
She means, of course, her four boys. After all, any modern mother of sons would be bereft without her manny.