Eight children by five different mothers over 47 years... so how on earth DOES Rod keep juggling...Clan Stewart
Just before the end of May, Rod Stewart and his extensive clan descended upon the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia to celebrate his son Liam’s wedding to Nicole Artukovich.
Over several days they sailed, swam, dined out, drank and, of course, witnessed Liam’s vows to his new wife in the baroque St Ignatius Church in the heart of the city’s old quarter.
They must have cut quite the dash. For Rod has eight children over 47 years by five different mothers – seven of whom were present in Dubrovnik alongside partners and children.
Rod’s kids, of whom he says he is extremely proud and often takes group family holidays with each summer, are an eclectic bunch, ranging from an ice hockey player to a professional dancer, several models, one Celtic-mad 13-year-old, as well as the 60-year-old daughter he gave up for adoption when he was just 18.
The Stewart clan got together at St Ignatius Church in Dubrovnik in Croatia for the wedding of Rod’s son Liam
And impressively, Stewart has managed to maintain a healthy relationship with most of their mothers too (Liam’s mum Rachel Hunter was present in Croatia, alongside Stewart’s wife Penny Lancaster).
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing. In 2021 Stewart admitted he had to be ‘several different fathers’ due to the large age gaps between his children.
‘You really have to treat all of them as individuals with individual problems,’ he said. ‘As a dad, I’ve learned to listen and not blow my top.’ Here, we meet the Stewart clan.
1. SEAN STEWART AGE: 43
Parents: Rod Stewart and Alana Stewart
Sean was just four years old when his parents split, and like his sister, saw little of his dad, who was on a punishing world tour schedule when he was young.
In 2009 he said that he had started ‘running with the wrong crowd’ by the time he was just ten years old, and by 13 was drinking and doing drugs at Hollywood clubs.
‘When people found out who I was, the drugs were always free,’ he said. By the age of 17 he was smoking crack cocaine, and did not get clean until he was 30.
In 2007 he too starred in a reality show titled Sons of Hollywood, and now runs a clothing brand, Dirty Weekend.
In January it was reported that he would shortly appear in a new reality show based around his life with his wife Jody Weintraub, daughter of the late Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub. The couple were married last year in Las Vegas.
Sean says he never blamed his father for his issues around addiction. ‘Dad never turned his back on me. I always knew he was there for me if I needed him.
‘But there were many lost years. I needed to grow up to have a grown-up relationship with him,’ he said. ‘He never kicked me out. I always knew there was a bedroom for me. But I preferred to do the other stuff.’
2. AIDEN STEWART AGE: 13
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster
The youngest of the Stewart tribe, just months after Aiden, now 13, was born his dad declared: ‘I’m trying to make more time now that I’ve carved out my career. I want to enjoy my kids.’
Sure enough, Rod often takes Aiden to see his beloved Celtic play – most recently in April when the pair, along with Alastair, were spotted in the crowd when Aberdeen played Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
He has even encouraged his son to kick a ball himself, and until recently, Aiden played for the Young Hoops Under-12s team.
In December 2022, Stewart revealed Aiden had been rushed to the hospital after ‘going blue and unconscious’ while playing in a football match.
‘We thought my boy had a heart attack,’ he said. ‘He was going blue and was unconscious until he calmed down. It was scary, but it turned out to be a panic attack.
‘The lad wanted to do well, pulled on the Hoops in Scotland for his dad.’
3. ALASTAIR STEWART AGE: 18
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster
Now 18 years old and towering over his diminutive father, Alastair is the eldest child of Rod and his wife Penny Lancaster, whom the star married in 2007.
Sporty as a child, when he was 11 Alastair hit the headlines after it was reported that Rod wanted to build an Olympic sized swimming pool in his back garden to nurture his son’s love of swimming.
By the age of 16, however, he appeared to be follow in his model mother’s footsteps, when he won a modelling contract for Italian luxury brand Palm Angels, appearing on billboards in Milan, where the company is based.
‘My boy wears it well,’ Rod tweeted in approval.
4. LIAM STEWART AGE: 29
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Rachel Hunter
Last month’s groom is Rod and Rachel’s second son and grew up in Los Angeles, with long trips to New Zealand to visit his mother’s family.
Growing up he shared his dad’s passion for football, but in his teens developed an interest in ice hockey. After a stint in New Zealand playing for a team in Queenstown he now plays professionally for British ice hockey team Milton Keynes Lightning.
He also represented Great Britain during the Ice Hockey Division 1B World Championship event which was held in Northern Ireland in 2017.
‘Obviously he’s interested because I play now, but I grew up playing football,’ he said in 2019 of his dad.
‘When he’s not touring he tries to keep up with my career.
‘He emails me here and there but he’s a pretty busy guy so if he can come down and watch me he will but he does keep in contact a lot.’ He and his new wife Nicole have a one-year-old son, Louie, Stewart’s third grandchild.
5. RENEE STEWART AGE: 32
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Rachel Hunter
The eldest child of Rod’s 16-year marriage to New Zealand model Rachel Hunter, Renee is a professional dancer who graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in 2016 and, unlike some of her siblings, has rarely sought the spotlight.
In her younger years she also dabbled in modelling, and once graced the cover of Tatler magazine, but in more recent times she has chosen to focus on dance and yoga.
Alongside her mother, now a professional yoga teacher, she runs yoga retreats and workshops and spends much of her time in India. She recently followed in her mother’s footsteps in training to become a professional yoga teacher by completing 500 hours of practice in India.
6. RUBY STEWART AGE: 36
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Kelly Emberg
A model and singer, there’s little doubt that Ruby, Rod’s only child from his relationship with American supermodel Emberg, has taken after both her parents.
Born in 1987 during Rod’s relationship with Emberg, who at the time was a Sports Illustrated model, her parents split three years later due to Rod’s repeated unfaithfulness (something that he later confessed to in his autobiography). While the split was initially acrimonious, Emberg is now good friends with Rod, and was even photographed recently with Lancaster, Hunter and Alana Stewart.
Not long after starting out as a model, Ruby followed in the footsteps of her father’s then wife, Rachel Hunter, by modelling for Michelle Mone’s Ultimo brand (a move seen as deliberately provocative on Mone’s part as the brand’s previous model had been Lancaster, Rod’s new wife), before modelling for Vogue Italia and Glamour magazine.
In 2021 she released a country album with a band named Sisterhood, and is regularly to be seen performing alongside her dad. She also sang at half-brother Liam’s wedding in Croatia.
In 2023 she welcomed a son, Otis, with her fiancé Jake Kalick. Expect another Stewart family wedding soon.
7. KIMBERLY STEWART AGE: 44
PARENTS: Rod Stewart and Alana Stewart
The eldest of Rod’s children by Alana – who was once married to George Hamilton and dated Elvis – Kimberly often only saw her dad as a child when she visited him on tour. In her 20s she became something of a socialite, partying with Paris Hilton and appearing in her own reality show, Living With... Kimberly Stewart.
In 2008, while working as a model and actress, she cashed in on her father’s name posing on the cover of Tatler with Peaches Geldof, daughter of Bob, and Leah Wood, daughter of Ronnie.
In 2011 she gave birth to Delilah, Rod’s oldest granddaughter. The father is actor Benicio del Toro, with whom she allegedly had a one night fling at Los Angeles’s notorious Chateau Marmont. Since then del Toro has been a hands-on dad, and Kimberly, del Toro, their daughter and Rod enjoyed a holiday together to Puerto Rico last year. Kimberly is not in the wedding picture.
8. SARAH STREETER AGE: 60
Parents: Rod Stewart and Susannah Boffey
Rod was just 17 years old when his girlfriend Boffey, an art student, got pregnant. The broke couple put baby Sarah up for adoption, and she was 18 before she learned her dad was a star.
Their reconciliation has been a rocky road. In the 1980s it collapsed when Rod, asked how many children he had, told a paper: ‘You can count her if you want. I try not to.’ In 2010, however, when Sarah’s adoptive parents died, they reunited.
‘We’ve tried to come together, and it’s working out pretty well,’ Rod said. ‘I never felt like I was her dad, because I didn’t take her to school, there was no paternal thing there, but I’m trying.’
While Sarah is rarely invited to big family events and was not present at Liam’s Croatian wedding, by 2018, it was clear things were on the right track. ‘Our relationship has evolved a lot in the last few years,’ Sarah said.
‘It’s taken its time because he’s not just my dad, is he? He’s a big star. So, of course, that makes it difficult. But over the years it has become much more relaxed and now he’s just Dad to me.’