Rocker Rod and wife used IVF to conceive

Rock legend Rod Stewart and his pregnant wife Penny Lancaster revealed they turned to IVF after a long battle to have another child.

The couple tried for two years to give their son Alastair a brother or sister but sought medical help after efforts to conceive naturally failed.

Speaking for the first time about their battle, they told this week’s Hello! magazine how they tried fertility experts in both America and the UK.

Lancaster, who posed for pictures with Rod at their LA mansion for the magazine, told the magazine of Alastair’s joy on hearing he would have a sibling made the struggle worthwhile.

She said: “Our son’s happiness made all the IVF treatments worthwhile.”

The couple have been on an “emotional rollercoaster” since being told they could not conceive naturally.

And Lancaster was told mercury levels in her body were “off the scale” as a result of her love of fish, something she believes may have contributed to their problems.

She cut seafood from her diet and after a third IVF cycle their dreams came true.

Recalling the moment she learned of her pregnancy, she told Hello!: “I couldn’t believe it. I burst into tears.”

“I called Rod when I was still sobbing. Rod said, ’I’m in the middle of a restaurant in Russia, crying’.

“I kept pinching myself. Neither of us could believe that it had finally happened.”

Veteran chart star Stewart said: “IVF can be stressful, especially for the woman with all the hormone injections and procedures. When the first attempt didn’t work, I said to Penny, ’don’t worry, we’ll just keep trying’.”

Stewart has fathered seven children – he had a son and a daughter with first wife Alana Hamilton, and a daughter in 1987 with Kelly Emberg.

He had two children during his marriage to Rachel Hunter and he also had a daughter in the early 1960s who was adopted.

The new baby is due in mid-March, by which point Stewart will be 66.

Lancaster said his age was not an issue: “All the tests he’s had show he’s fitter than the average 45-year-old.”

And Stewart added: “I keep very fit and healthy and, with a young family, there’s no holding me back.”

:: The full interview is in Hello! Magazine on sale now.