Sir Rod Stewart, 79, recalls apology to wife Penny Lancaster from footballing ‘hero’ after inappropriate outburst
Rod Stewart recently recalled the moment a former Celtic footbaler felt the need to apologise to his wife Penny Lancaster after a sweary outburst in front of her.
The Maggie May singer invited the Hoops over to his house to use his full-sized football pitch in the grounds of his Essex home so they could prepare for pre-season matches.
Gordon Strachan – who was the team’s manager at the time – pre-warned the players not to use any bad or offensive language in front of Stewart’s wife, Lancaster, who was sitting watching.
During their time at their couple’s home, Aiden McGeady left Stewart in a fit of laughter after he blurted out a swear word – immediately running over to Lancaster and expressing: “Sorry miss.”
Recalling the moment during his recent appearance on the Soccer A-Z podcast, Stewart said: “The pitch was actually the size of Wembley. It was dead flat.
“I remember Gordon Strachan coming down one day to test it. He rolled the ball from the halfway line to the centre spot and said, ‘This is amazing. It’s dead flat’.
“Celtic came down twice and they borrowed West Ham’s goals to put on my pitch so they could play.
“I remember Aiden McGeady. Gordon Strachan told the boys, ‘Mrs Stewart is going to be watching on the touchline so don’t swear’.
“So anyway, they’re training away and the ball went out of play. McGeady put it out of play and he went ‘Oh f***ing hell’.
“Immediately he went up to Penny and said, ‘Oh I’m sorry miss, I’m sorry Penny’. It was a wonderful moment.”
He went on to discuss how starstruck he was when the Celtic stars came to his home and had to be convinced to go and meet them.
He added: “I was actually frightened. I look upon footballers like my heroes. I remember Penny saying, ‘Oh go down and meet the team’.
“I said: ‘I’m too scared’ but I did go down and watch them in the end. I was very, very star-struck with the Celtic boys. I don’t know what it is, you know that?
“They’re all bl**dy 20 or 30 years younger than me. It’s just because, in my eyes, it’s what I wanted to be. I love Celtic, and they’re right up there, in my opinion. I feel like a schoolboy sometimes.”
Despite his love for the team, Stewart ruled out ever investing in Celtic due to fears of receiving backlash from fans if the results didn’t go the right way.
He firmly stated: “No, not in a million years. I don’t want to get the wrath of the supporters when you come out of the game.
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“I want to remain just a humble fan, albeit a very famous one.
“I don’t want to get invested. I’m going to stay out of it.”