Penny Lancaster has shared what her father Graham really thought about her dating Sir Rod Stewart, who is 26 years older than her. The 54-year-old model met Rod, 80, at a bar in London's Mayfair in 1999 when she was working as a photographer.

After asking him if she could take pictures of him on tour, he agreed and later asked her out on a date.

Penny previously claimed that she wasn't a fan of Rod at first, before getting "sucked" into his world and falling in love with him.

Reflecting on the earlier stages of their romance in a new interview, the mother-of-two shared what it was really like introducing the rockstar to her parents.

With Rod being nearer to her mum and dad's ages than her, she admitted to feeling "awkward" at first.

"He wanted to meet my parents and I thought it could be really awkward because they were the same age as him," she confessed.

"My father had been through the mill with me and my boyfriends during my teenage years, he always put that down as one of the reasons he went grey - and then suddenly there's this rock star."

Keen to impress Graham, Penny said Rod switched up his look for the occasion. 

"We were arranging a dinner with my dad, who was a lawyer, so Rod wanted to be respectful and drop the rock and roll look, turning up in a double-breasted suit," she told Hello! Magazine. 

Recalling how the evening went, she added: "My father thought, 'Right, rock star' so he dropped his suit and turned up in a leather jacket. They were both equally nervous, but they got on like a house on fire."

Penny went on to say from that moment on, she knew "Rod was the one" for her.

In a previous admission, the Loose Women star said her parents found out about her romance with the Maggie May hitmaker through the press.

“I didn’t have a choice, the press made it public," she said. "Like, what’s happening here?"

Quizzed on if she would rather have kept it a secret by her co-star Kaye Adams, she replied in 2021: “Well, for the children’s sake, Rod’s children and the fact there was always speculation about Rod’s new girlfriend.

“I think it’s nicer to allow those people to make that choice rather than the press do it for you.

“They end up knocking on your father’s door and say, ‘By the way, did you know your daughter’s going out with Rod Stewart?’ It's a bit awkward."

After becoming serious with Rod, she not only had to get used to his high profile fame, but also his blended family.

Before meeting Penny, he already had six children from four different women including two with his ex-wife Rachel Hunter.

The couple, who married in 2007, went on to have two sons of their own; Alastair, 19, and Aiden, 13.