Penny Lancaster struggled to hold back tears as she learned how one of Rod Stewart's friends attempted to stop them from dating - for one surprising reason. During the first episode of Anita Rani's festive TV show, the Forever Young hitmaker revealed to the Loose Women star that a close friend withheld her phone number from him until the star was "fully healed" from his bitter divorce from model Rachel Hunter. Rocker Rod admitted that his separation from his second wife left him in physical pain, admitting that he finally knew what it was to have a broken heart.

Penny and Rod, who have been together for more than 20 years, first met when the police officer, 54, was a student at Barking College. Shortly after his split from wife Rachel, the 80-year-old musician met Penny after a gig, but his close friend Carmine Appice thought he wasn't in the right headspace to return to dating so soon.

Because of this, she decided not to pass on the blonde bombshell's phone number until he was emotionally ready to return to the dating pool again. Revealing the whole story on Rani's show, My Life At Christmas, Rod told her: "He was an absolute gentleman, he was band leader and bass player, and he kept her telephone away from me.

"He didn't think I was in the right position because I had just got a divorce and didn't know if I was coming or going, and he said, 'I will give it to you when I think you are ready'.

Rod joked: "I should have fired him, but I couldn't!" It was at this point that Penny became overwhelmed with emotion as she chimed in: "Carmine had kept that telephone number away from him.

"He said, 'You are going to go a bit crazy over the summer and let your hair down, and Penny seems like a nice girl." But at the time, she believed she would never see the chart-topping singer again.

She continued: "I really thought that was the last I would see of Rod. I remember processing those photos I took of Rod [at the gig] and thinking, 'What a lovely memory,' and that was that."

But after a few months, Rod finally took the plunge and contacted Penny, and it's fair to say the happy couple have only gone from strength to strength. The couple, who share two children together, welcomed their first son in 2005.

Two years later, they walked down the aisle together in a lavish ceremony before the arrival of their second son in 2011. Later on in the show, Penny opened up about what it was like to enter into a blended family.

She told the host: "I tiptoed very lightly, because there were lots of personalities, and more importantly, there were children ranging from all ages. From Liam, who was five when we met, through to teenagers, to Kimberly, who was just about to turn 21, so it was delicate, and they were children from different mothers."

She went on: "It was a scenario I had never faced before, and I thought, 'I need to stay in the background but be present and there if they want to approach me'. I just wanted to take my time, and it took a long time."

Choking back tears, she continued: "We got there, and we have got to a place that I never thought I would get to with them." Rod then chimed in with: "I must admit the kids adore her now, they look for her for advice."

Rod met his second wife, Rachel, when she was just 21 years old, but despite their 24-year age gap, the singer went on to tie the knot with the Maggie May singer and share two children together: Renee and Liam.

But in 1999, Rachel walked away from their marriage, stating that she'd "lost her identity". She later admitted: "I'll take to the grave the pain I caused Rod. I hurt the one person I loved and cared about."

Rod certainly didn't take their separation well, gushing at the time: "I took to lying on the sofa in the day, with a blanket over me and a hot water bottle against my chest. I knew then why they call it heartbroken. You can feel it in your heart."