Rod Stewart's a doting dad to all 8 of his children with 5 women

Sir Rod Stewart looked every inch the proud father in a sweet Instagram snap with his large blended family as he celebrated the wedding of his hockey player son Liam in Croatia.

Joined by six of his eight children, wife Penny Lancaster and ex Rachel Hunter, who is Liam's mother, the 79-year-old singer couldn't keep the smile from his face as he posed with his clan on the steps of the church of Jesuits in the Old Town.

Sir Rod shares eight children with five mothers. He is a father to four daughters Sarah, 60, Kimberly, 44, Ruby, 36, and Renee, 32 and four sons, Sean, 43, Liam, 29, Alastair Wallace, 18, and Aiden Patrick, 13.

Remarkably, he regularly proves he is the friendliest of exes with Alana Stewart, Kelly Emberg and Rachel Hunter, having previously posed with his wife Penny, 53, and the mothers of seven of his children in 2019 at daughter Kimberly's 40th birthday party.

The rocker's paternal adventures began at the age of 17, and his youngest was born nearly half a century later, when he was 66. Along the way there has been three wives, one long-term girlfriend and a teenage fling.

But while he now seems the epitome of a doting father, Sir Rod, according to his wife Penny, became a 'better parent' who gives his children 'more time' in later life compared to in his Lothario early days.

For instance, the singer's oldest child, Sarah Streeter, was put up for adoption and only learned about Sir Rod when she was 18 - and they struggled for decades to build a relationship.

Sir Rod Stewart's relationship timeline 

• At the age of 17, Rod fathered his first child Sarah Streeter with art student Susannah Boffey, and she was raised by adoptive parents
• Rod embarked on a five year romance with model Dee Harrington from 1971
• In 1975, Rod enjoyed a two-year romance with former Bond girl Britt Ekland
• Rod was first married to model and actress Alana Stewart from 1979 to 1984 - and the pair share two children, Kimberly and Sean
• The hitmaker then dated model Kelly Emberg, who he was with until 1990 and had daughter Ruby with
• Rod got married for a second time, to model Rachel Hunter in 1990 and had two children with her; Renee and Liam. They split in 1999
• Happily married since 2007, Rod now raises sons Alastair and Aiden with third wife Penny Lancaster

An attempted reconciliation during the 1980s is said to have collapsed, with Sir Rod, when questioned about his children, saying: 'You can count her if you want. I try not to,' reported The Scotsman.

Sarah's mother, Susannah Boffey, was an art student girlfriend of Sir Rod’s and he was only 17 when she got pregnant.

'The reality is that he's got a daughter whose life he messed up for a very long time - and my life, too,' Susannah said in 2013.

Her daughter has, though, since been reunited with Sir Rod and said: 'I used to be like Susannah, full of resentment, but then I realised that dwelling on the past doesn't get you anywhere.'

Sir Rod admitted: ‘At first it was hard to feel like she was my own. But I’ve worked hard at it and now it’s beginning to feel like we’re family. Sarah had something of a chip on her shoulder when we first met, but it’s understandable.’

Sarah said relations had improved since her adoptive parents died. ‘The more I reflect on why Sir Rod initially didn’t get very involved, the more I believe it had a lot to do with my adoptive parents. I think he was wary of encroaching on their territory.'

Meanwhile, daughter Kimberly is the older of the singer's two children by Alana Hamilton, who was married to Sir Rod from 1979 to 1984. She was five when her parents broke up and Sir Rod was rarely around when she was growing up.

In her youth she was a socialite and pals with Paris Hilton, in LA’s party-hard scene, but her life changed after she fell pregnant by actor Benicio Del Toro. 

Kimberly and Benicio welcomed Delilah to the world in August 2011, although they were not in a relationship at the time. 

But despite not being around much when she was growing up, Sir Rod says Kimberly was one of his greatest supports when he split from second wife Rachel Hunter in 1999. ‘Kimberly was wonderful,’ he said.

Sir Rod's eldest son Sean, meanwhile, was only four when his parents split, and the singer was busy touring the world during his formative years. 

In an interview with the Mail On Sunday in 2009, Sean admitted he ‘started running with the wrong crowd at ten’. 

By 13, he was regularly sneaking off to get drunk and do drugs at Hollywood clubs. ‘When people found out who I was, the drugs were always free,’ he said. At 17, he was smoking crack cocaine.

However, he defended his father, saying: ‘Dad never turned his back on me. I always knew he was there for me if I needed him. But there were many lost years. I needed to grow up to have a grown-up relationship with him.

‘He never kicked me out. I always knew there was a bedroom for me. But I preferred to do the other stuff.’

Speaking of his younger sibling Alastair's relationship with his father, he added: '[Rod] is loving fatherhood this time around and it’s fantastic to see. With me, he was busy working. I don’t blame him, but it took me a long time to understand that and come to terms with it.’ 

'We all get along great. That’s when Dad is happiest, when he’s with all his kids just relaxing somewhere,' said Sean who says that he has been clean since he was 30.

Nowadays Sean and Sir Rod are close, and share a love of football and shopping. Sean said in 2015: ‘I get a lot of love and support from my father.’ 

Sir Rod also initially had a strained relationship with daughter Ruby Stewart, whose mother is Texan model Kelly Emberg, who he started dating in 1983.

Fiercely loyal to her mother, Ruby remained outside the Stewart family circle until her teens and told an interviewer in 2008 that there was a point when she and half-sister Kimberly weren’t even speaking. 

Thankfully, Sir Rod had put his wild ways aside when he married Rachel Hunter in 1990 - indeed, she is credited as the only woman to break his heart. He remained a close father to their children, Renee and Liam Stewart, after the couple's divorce in 2006.

The 'Maggie May' singer has been married to former model Penny Lancaster since 2007 and they share children Alastair and Aiden. 

Many credit Penny with keeping all the plates of his complicated family spinning happily. As she once said in an interview: ‘Two kids are the perfect number for me, although I always think of us having eight children because all Rod’s kids are so much a part of our lives, like one big extended family.’

She also said Sir Rod is a much more hands-on dad now. ‘He has learned to compromise. He has become a lot softer and his elder children will even admit he’s a better parent who gives them more time.'

Speaking to the Mail On Sunday in 2018, she added: 'Rod is a very hands-on dad. He changed the boys’ nappies, he does the school run after a year of coming with me so he knew what to do. The boys love it because he will pick them up in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.’

Sir Rod this week shared the photo of his blended family, which included son Aiden, alongside Sean, wife Penny, son Liam and his new wife Nicole, grandson Louie, daughters Renee and Ruby and his ex-wife Rachel amongst others.

'I'm immensely proud to have witness the beautiful wedding ceremony of my son Liam to his bride Nicole,' said Rod. 'What a wonderful union of The Stewart's and The Artukovich's. 

'May they continue to find joy, love and laughter for as long as they may live and produce many more baby's to join their little 1 year old boy, Louie,' he captioned the post.

It's not the first time the singer has showed off his blended family who are all now seemingly close to their father - and in 2019, he even shared a snap wife Penny and three of the other women he's fathered children with.

Taken at the 40th birthday party for his daughter Kimberly in Los Angeles, the photo was thought to be the first time that so many of his exes had been seen together. 

Kelly Emberg shared the photograph with friends, joking: 'A mothers' reunion.'

Sir Rod has spoken of how close he is to the three old flames. 'They all live within three minutes of me, and we've all got children together,' he said the previous year. 'So we've got to be in each other's lives for the rest of our lives.'