Source: thesun.co.uk
Newlywed Penny Lancaster is hoping to dazzle in her bid to win TV’s Strictly Come Dancing – before trying for another baby.
When the show ends, the leggy beauty says she will be hotfooting it back to rocker hubby Rod Stewart to show off her sexy new moves.
The couple already have a son, 22-month-old Alastair.
And in an exclusive interview with The Sun, model and photographer Penny says: “We hope there will be another one. We’re planning on it and hopefully after Strictly Come Dancing we’ll start trying again.
“My first pregnancy went very smoothly and I didn’t have any of the symptoms — no morning sickness, no cravings.”
But that doesn’t mean Penny would be happy to hang up her dancing shoes or get voted off the new series of the dance contest, which starts this Saturday.
The stunning blonde is determined to make it to the final of the BBC1 show, which regularly pulls in ten million viewers.
She laughs: “I’m happy to wait until next year to try for a baby. My aim is to get all the way to the end of Strictly Come Dancing so I can learn all the routines.”
Penny had dreamed of taking up ballroom dancing since childhood, so she was delighted to be asked to take part this year.
She knew it wouldn’t be easy. But nothing could have prepared her for her exhausting daily three-hour training sessions with partner Ian Waite.
She confesses: “I’ve got a huge blister and I’m covered in bruises because Ian and I keep bashing kneecaps, but I’m loving it.
“Having said that, I am toning up my tummy which is not quite back to normal since having Alastair.
“And I couldn’t hope for a better partner than Ian, who is the sweetest guy and has a very good understanding of what it’s like for a beginner.”
She adds: “I’ve always loved dancing. I danced from the age of five but stopped when I was 11 because sometimes we’d have to do a show at our local theatre and each girl would have to perform a little routine by herself.
“I’d run out screaming and crying!”
One person who will definitely be cheering her on from the wings this time round is husband Rod.
The loved-up pair — who have been together eight years — tied the knot in a lavish but intimate ceremony in Italy in June.
With Penny performing sexy Latin dances in skimpy dresses with Ian, you might expect Rod to be jealous.
But Penny says: “Oh no, it’s not like you’re in a nightclub. These dancers take their job so seriously that when you’re getting in close contact, they’re not thinking of anything like that and nor are you — you’re focused on getting the right shoulder position and where you are placing your leg.
“Rod will be in the audience at every opportunity and I’ll be happy to know he’s there. That’ll give me a lot more confidence to go on to try and win it.
“Rod gives me the confidence I lack. If ever I feel I’m not good enough for something, he’s always saying, ‘You’re great. You’re fantastic. You can do it.’ So when he’s around, I go into fifth gear. It actually helps when he’s watching.”
Penny is aware that the show choreographers might ask her to perform to one of her hubby’s hits.
It wouldn’t be the first time she has danced to his songs — on the eve of her wedding, Penny and her pals performed a dance routine to Hot Legs for Rod.
She giggles: “My girlfriends had made up the routine for my hen-do and we reprised it the night before the wedding. My friends insisted I joined in, so I had to improvise. We danced later for Rod because he’d never got to see it. It was great fun to do.”
Penny goes starry-eyed when she talks about the wedding. After a civil service with only her parents as witnesses, they had an church ceremony with 100 guests.
She recalls: “It couldn’t have been more perfect. We got married in Italy because we travel there almost every year on holiday. We wanted to keep it really quiet so we didn’t publicise the details.
“It’s a day every girl dreams of and I’ve always said a relationship is not just two people but two families, and that’s what the wedding did so successfully.”
Penny wore an exquisite, vintage-style A-line gown by a Spanish designer which took more than 400 hours to create. She says: “I wanted to look as if I were wearing a dress my great-grandmother might have worn. It was so beautiful!”
Five of Rod’s seven children — Alastair, Kimberly (Rod’s daughter by Alana Hamilton), Ruby (by Kelly Emberg) and Renee and Liam (by Rachel Hunter) — attended the ceremony.
Although Penny and Rod have been together for almost a decade, Penny says it was Alastair’s birth that really brought the vast Stewart clan together.
She says: “The children see us as more of a family unit now we’ve got Alastair.They see that I’m here to stay.
“I think it makes them feel secure, that it’s brought us all much tighter. Having Alastair made us complete.”
While the proud mum is eager to have a baby brother or sister for Alastair, who turns two in November, she is also enjoying her fledgling TV career.
She and Rod hired a nanny four months ago so that she would be able to take part in Strictly Come Dancing and now she hopes to do more TV work.
Penny says: “I do like presenting. I love being around people and expressing who I am, as opposed to just that still imagine of being a model in a photograph. I’d like to do some kind of lifestyle show.
“But any TV career will always take second place to being a wife and mum. If it turns out that work fits in nicely with that, then great.
“Otherwise I will have to turn things down, because I don’t want to neglect my family.”