Rod Stewart announces surprising move away from music career

Rod Stewart has an unusual new creative outlet away from music (Image: Getty)

Music legend Sir Rod Stewart has an unexpected new endeavour away from his iconic singing career. The 80-year-old star has joined the growing list of celebrities, including David Beckham and Meghan Markle, who make their own honey. The chart-topping star and his wife, Penny Lancaster, have 320,000 bees living in the garden of his mansion in Hertfordshire. Penny revealed that she and Rod, 80, used to keep the honey for themselves, but their bees now make so much that they give some away to family and friends.

The 54-year-old model and TV star is a fan of adding honey to her lemon tea in the morning, and she explained that they first invested in hives, which each house around 40,000 bees, so they could produce their own. “With our mature fruit trees, other native plants and surrounding farmers’ land, our garden is the perfect home for bees. We have eight hives plus a shed for extracting and storing honey,” she said.

“Our bedroom overlooks beautiful mature oak and beech trees and a topiary area. I press the button on our automatic blinds and the view gently seeps in. Rod and I sit up in bed for 10 minutes, gaze out and natter over a cuppa.

“Rod enjoys English breakfast tea, and I have hot water with lemon juice, which is good for digestion and fighting inflammation, plus a teaspoon of homemade honey,” the Daily Star reported.

Penny also recently revealed how Rod would describe her style. During an appearance on Amanda Wakely’s Style DNA podcast, the host asked her how Rod would describe her style DNA in only three words, and she immediately responded: “Sexy hot legs.”

Ironically, one of Rod’s most famous songs is his 1978 single Hot Legs, which reached number 5 on the charts.

Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart have bee hives in the grounds of their mansion (Image: Getty)

During the chat, she also revealed Rod was the one responsible for giving her the confidence to showcase her lengthy pins. Opening up about a trip to the Bahamas early in their relationship, after she had just broken things off with her boyfriend, she intimated that he had chosen a wardrobe for her that changed her style parameters.

“I’m at photography college…I turn up in the Bahamas. I don’t have much money to buy new clothes, but I didn’t need to worry,” she recalled. I arrived at this house that his friend had rented, and he showed me into this bedroom. I opened up the wardrobes, and it was full of clothes and shoes for me.”

“Some might be thinking, ‘isn’t that a bit controlling?'” she acknowledged. “(But) actually, I think he knew where I was at.

“He knew the struggles I’d gone through, because we’d had lots of conversations over the phone in that time leading up to this trip, and he wanted a moment for me to shed all of those insecurities. “And there were lots of short skirts and skimpy things, and I had a good figure. And he just like, ‘why are you covering yourself up?'” she said.