Rod Stewart attends ice hockey star son Liam’s marriage ceremony

Rod Stewart proved there is no awkwardness between his wives, both past and present, as the whole family attended his son Liam’s wedding to Nicole Artukovich in Croatia on Friday. 

The bride and groom were joined by their blended family as they gathered at the church of St. Ignatius in Dubrovnik. 

Singer Rod, 79, who has been married three times, beamed as he watched on alongside his glamorous wife Penny Lancaster, 53, and his second wife, and Liam’s mother, Kiwi model Rachel Hunter. 

Penny looked incredible in a lilac satin gown with a thigh high split, while Rachel opted for a stunning teal gown as they both attended the special occasion. 

Ice hockey star Liam, 28, got engaged to project manager Nicole last July two months before welcoming their first child together, a son called Louie. 

Rod and Penny have been married since 2007 and share two children, Alastair, 18, and his younger brother Aiden, 13, who were also in attendance. 

The rocker has eight children from five different mothers and has been married three times, including his marriage to Rachel which officially ended in 2006. 

Penny has previously spoken about the friendship between the pair as she confessed any heartache between the threesome is now all water under the bridge.  

At the time Rod admitted that Rachel left him heartbroken when she called time on their nine-year marriage in 1999, some seven years before they divorced.

However while there was some initial tension between the two women as the rocker eventually moved on, Penny told the Loose Women back in 2017 that her and Rachel are now very friendly. 

She explained: ‘Rachel and I, over the years, we’ve grown up and both have a lot more in common now. We sit and chat and we’ve got over that silly period 10, 15 years ago.

‘It’s about being adults… We’ve moved on, grown up, and from the beginning I knew I wasn’t dating just Rod; I was in a relationship with his family. I saw how all his children were getting on and I wanted my future children to do that as well.’   

Speaking of Rachel and Penny’s relationship himself, Rod also told the Daily Express: ‘We get on great now and Penny gets on great with Rachel. In fact all the exes get on so I think I must have done something right.’

Spanning over almost 50 years, Rod’s oldest child, daughter Sarah is 59-years-old and his youngest Aiden is just 13. 

The star welcomed his eldest with his ex-girlfriend Susannah Boffey but the couple gave her up for adoption after he fathered her at age 18.

He then went on to have two children, daughter Kimberly, 44, and his son Sean, 43, with his ex-wife Alana Stewart.

The star fathered another daughter, Ruby, 36, with his former partner Kelly Emberg before marrying his second wife Rachel who gave birth to two more children, Renee, 31, and Liam, 29.

Rachel and Rod were married from 1990 until 2006. The couple met at a Los Angeles night-club the night before Sir Rod, then 45, was planning to propose to model Kelly, with whom he shares daughter Ruby. 

But Sir Rod was enamoured by Rachel, then 21, who had recently appeared in a high-profile Sports Illustrated fitness video. 

The couple had Renee and son Liam before going their separate ways.

Speaking to The Times, Renee, who recently qualified as a yoga teacher, revealed how her father’s brood of children – would get together for ‘amazing’ ‘tribe gatherings’ when she was younger.

But she said she would hide her famous father’s identity in school because she was determined to be her own person.

‘It’s just not cool to talk about your parents,’ she said. ‘When I was at school in LA, if people asked me what my dad did I’d say, “Oh he’s in entertainment”.

‘No disrespect to him, but you want to make your own life. You want to be your own person. Trading off it can really screw you up and it kind of makes people cringe.’

Renee, who has modelled for Dolce & Gabbana, explained her father was often the picture of pride on these family holidays but that her mother, and his other ex-partners, were not invited.

While it would have been little surprise had the son of one of the biggest rock stars in the world pursued his father’s great sporting passion of football, instead Liam opted for ice hockey. 

‘I love it,’ said Liam, talking exclusively to Sportsmail in 2015 about his role as one of Coventry’s defensive forwards and penalty killer.

Liam currently plays for Milton Keynes Lightning in the NIHL, the second-tier of Britain’s professional ice hockey leagues. 

‘I get more satisfaction out of blocking shots than I do scoring a goal for some reason.

‘I don’t know why, but my coach in the juniors gave me a lot of praise for doing that so I took that under my wing and ran with it. 

‘I’ve broken my foot a couple of times and last year I shattered my ankle, but it’s all part of being a hockey player. It’s all healed now and I’m ready to go.

‘I don’t mind grinding it out in the corners and maybe a fight here and there. I won’t be the guy who goes out and instigates it but if something happens I’m fine.’

That means Rod and Rachel’s boy will throw his body in the way of pucks travelling at close to 100mph to stop his team conceding goals.

‘You never worry about injury because in that split second when you’re going down you don’t think about it, and when it hits you it’s quite the feeling you get,’ smiled Stewart, who turns 22 on Monday. ‘There’s no fear.’

So how did the son of a singer, who is as big as ever at 71, get to be a professional ice hockey player and what does dad think about it?

‘He’s supportive but he would have loved it more if I’d played football because that’s his sport,’ admitted Liam. 

‘He loves coming to watch me play, he enjoys watching the sport, but I’m not sure he’s always been sure of the rules. I’ve said to him, “All you have to worry about is when we score, Dad.” 

‘I’m sure he will come to watch me at Coventry but he’s got a UK tour and that takes in gigs at Belfast and Sheffield so he might see me at away games.

Liam caught the ice hockey bug when his parents took him to see one of the biggest clubs in the world — the New York Rangers — when he was four.

‘I played football up until I was 14 but I’d been at a New York Rangers game when I was younger and it had made a big impact on me,’ said Liam. ‘I said to my mum, “This is what I want to play”.

‘As soon as my junior side Spokane came calling I thought it might be a sport where I could go somewhere and here I am playing professionally.’