Do ya think I’m cuddly?
I still love sex at 73, says Rod. But a kiss and hug at bedtime is just as nice
HE’S the rock star lothario who topped the charts when he asked – – with supreme confidence – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?
But at the age of 73, Rod Stewart’s once prolific sex life has now calmed down – to the point where he’s happy to settle for a simple kiss and a cuddle with wife Penny Lancaster.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Magazine today, the singer says: ‘You know, I love sex with my wife but I love just giving her a hug before we go to bed.
‘Every night we have a kiss and a hug and that doesn’t always lead to sex but it’s still lovely.’
It’s 40 years since Rod released Do You Think I’m Sexy and he admits things have changed in the bedroom, adding: ‘Well, I need a bit of a start on the handle now, that’s for sure. Like a vintage car.’
It’s a far cry from the days when he bedded countless beautiful women – including Swedish actress Britt Ekland – before finally settling with Penny, now 47, who became his third wife in 2007.
Stewart admits he was often ashamed about the cowardly way in which he ended many of his past relationships, saying: ‘It’s true. I just didn’t have the b ******* . I didn’t
‘I’m not proud of how I treated women’
want the confrontation. It was a different era but that’s no excuse really. I can be accused of being cowardly, and rightly so. I’m certainly not proud of it.’
Asked if he had ever apologised to the women he adds: ‘A few of them, when I bump into them, yes. Especially my daughter Ruby’s mum [American model Kelly Emberg], who’s an absolute diamond.’
Now a doting father, with two young sons with Penny – Aiden, seven, and Alastair, 12 – among his eight children, Stewart is affectionately indulgent towards the boys.
Aiden, he says, is: ‘Like me, a big romantic. He’s been dressing up as a lady and I wanted to buy him a nice outfit for Christmas, but Pen said, “Don’t encourage him.”
‘I’ve seen lots of kids dress up as girls when they’re little. It doesn’t mean anything. And anyway, if he’s gay, so what? We need gay men in the world.’
After a week in which it was announced Stewart plans to auction off items from a country home he is selling, one trademark remains reassuringly unchanged: his blonde spiky hair.
But he reveals: ‘It’s been flat for a week. It’s too long. I’m going to get it done when I get back to London.
‘Although I find it easier to get around when it’s flat,’ he adds with a smile, delighting in the rare pleasure of travelling incognito.