Rod Stewart wife Penny Lancaster says she deserves a medal for marriage to rock legend

After 26 years of partnership and 18 years of marriage to Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster says she deserves a medal.

In a new interview with Best Magazine, the 55-year-old mother of two opened up about her relationship with the rock legend and revealed how they manage to “keep the intimacy alive” after nearly two decades of marriage.

“Yes, 26 years! I deserve a medal, don’t I?” she told the publication, per the Daily Mail. “Only joking.”

The couple met back in 1999 when Penny was a student at Barking College.

The pair married in 2007 and eventually welcomed two sons, Alastair Wallace and Aiden Patrick.

Stewart was already a father of six at the time of his marriage to Lancaster.

With a blended family and hectic schedules, Lancaster said it’s important that she and her husband find time for each other.

“We don’t take each other for granted and make sure we have date nights together … dinner, the theatre or whatever, doing the school run together and having an ‘a deux’ coffee on the way home, long romantic walks together,” she said. “We flirt with each other and make each other laugh.”

Lancaster said they “keep the intimacy alive” by celebrating each other and the big milestones they reach in their relationship.

“We’re big on celebrating our anniversaries and really spoil each other,” she said. “For instance, for our last wedding anniversary, we took a very romantic train trip from Paris to Portofino because Rod proposed to me in Paris and we got married in Portofino. We love reminiscing about our life together and also making plans for the future — more romantic trips.”

But the biggest secret to their success? Having “time apart,” says Lancaster.

Lancaster said that really “keeps the spark alive.”