Penny Lancaster, 54, pens gushing tribute to Rod Stewart, 80, as rocker left visibly emotional after career achievement
Penny Lancaster has penned a sweet tribute to her husband, Sir Rod Stewart, after he was left visibly emotional at the 2025 American Music Awards on Monday night.
The flooding of emotion came when five of his children made a surprise appearance to present him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The 80-year-old singing icon was completely blindsided by the unexpected gesture from his family and told the audience: “I’m absolutely flabbergasted. I didn’t know they were here – my children.”
Stewart was clearly moved by the moment that unfolded after he had performed his classic hit Forever Young.
The veteran rocker was so shocked by his children’s appearance that he dropped an expletive during the broadcast.
“I’m so f***ing overwhelmed that you are here,” Stewart told his family, according to reports from the ceremony.
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CBS awkwardly edited the expletive from the televised version, cutting away from Stewart to show audience members filming on their phones.
Rather than using a beep, the network appeared to simply remove the offending word, resulting in a jarring cut that returned to Stewart’s speech mid-word.
The five children who joined Stewart on stage were Kimberly, 45; Sean, 44; Ruby, 37; Renee, 32; and Liam, 30. They represent Stewart’s first two marriages and his relationship with ex-girlfriend Kelly Emberg.
Three of Stewart’s children were absent from the ceremony, including his eldest daughter, Sarah Streeter, 61, and his two youngest sons with his current wife, Penny Lancaster – Alistair, 19, and Aiden, 14.
The Maggie May singer also managed to inject some humour into his acceptance speech with a risqué joke about his large family.
“I’ve got eight [kids] all together. I didn’t have a television. That was a little joke,” he added sheepishly as the audience chuckled.
Lancaster shared her pride for her husband on Instagram, and posted an image of the singer with the caption: “So proud of my man – lifetime achievement award @amas.” (sic)
During his speech, Stewart went on to share his early motivations for entering the music industry and said: “When I started singing in the early ’60s.
“Well, before all of you lot were here, the reason I got into it [was] because I had this burning ambition to sing. It’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be rich or famous, and here I am a few years later, picking up this wonderful award.’
Stewart concluded his speech with a performance of his classic tune Forever Young, a rendition featuring a middle section that highlighted his female backing musicians and tap dancers.
This year marked the first time the AMAs ceremony was shown on CBS, as it had previously aired on ABC since 1974.
This year’s event also marked the first time the show aired live since 2022, following a hiatus due to ABC’s Grammys contract expiring at the time.