PENNY LANCASTER

There's less pressure to look good as you get older.

I modelled in my 20s, and it was an obsessive time. I was under pressure to look a certain way.

I'm lucky that I have a supportive partner who loves me when I'm bigger as well as slim.

I do love fish, and I thought it was healthy without understanding the high mercury levels that fish like tuna, swordfish and halibut can contain.

As long as you try your best, that is all that matters. You don't have to be the fastest runner or top of the class.

I think there's always interest in how the other half live - I see myself as a down-to-earth Essex mum who just happens to be living this very glamorous life in Beverly Hills.

I'm a pretty organised traveller.

If I had a partner who asked when I was going to the gym or commented that I was eating too much or asked if I really needed an extra potato, that would make me feel awful. It would be terrible.

I really do believe that being naturally beautiful is what is inside and what shines through.

I used to get called Lady Penelope at school because the other kids thought I spoke nicely.

There are so many places I have visited which are unusual, but the ones my family and I tend to always go back to are those in Europe, particularly France and Italy.

Rod's always opening doors for me, but I usually tell him to walk through first. Otherwise, if we're at a restaurant and I'm in front, the paparazzi end up getting a big giant close-up of me, and then he's trailing behind, looking like my little child!

The truth is I'm a very traditional woman, and Rod - despite everything people may think - is a very traditional man. It's true he absolutely loves glamour, and he hasn't got a conventional job, but performing aside, he's happiest at home with his kids around him or lounging in front of the fire watching a war documentary like 'D-Day Remembered.'

I happily went on holiday with my parents until I was 18, because we always had such a good time that I didn't want to venture off and do my own thing. I have very fond memories of those holidays with my brother, mum, and dad.

Rod and I are naturally in love, and that is what binds us together. But to keep the spark alive in your relationship, you really have to work at it.

I was bullied from the age of 11 onwards. I was always much bigger than the other kids. I spoke nicely, didn't swear, and I refused to try to fit in and be like everyone else. People assumed I thought I was above everyone else.

Rod always dresses for dinner - even if I just want to wear tracksuit bottoms, he dresses up.

I do look after everyone around me; that's just who I am. I am a real mother hen.

Rod's always been a keen sportsman, so he didn't live as excessive a life as some musicians.

There's certainly never a dull moment in the Stewart clan.

Rod's not very good at confrontations; he would rather walk away and avoid something rather than go into it.

I got the best of Rod. And I am fully aware that, even though I love listening to his stories of the crazy days, no relationship could really last then. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to the 1970s or 1980s, sit at a bar, and observe him, but I'm glad our time came when it did.

Manners are really very important to me.

Rod has always been like my third child and my most demanding boy out of the three.

People often say that if you have to work hard at a marriage, then it's not naturally good, but I think that's totally wrong.