Lady Penny Lancaster-Stewart has revealed she ended up on medication to cope with the emotional pain she felt over her husband Sir Rod Stewart's cancer diagnosis

Penny, 54, upheld her husband's wish, but the former model admits not having an outlet for her own stress and worry over his illness led her to seek medical help.

It was in October 2017, that Penny revealed publicly that she had been a victim of sexual abuse during a conversation about the #MeToo movement on daytime TV show Loose Women, and Penny believes that experience came to the surface because of the stress of keeping Rod's cancer battle secret.

During an appearance on Loose Women on Thursday (05.02.26), Penny said: "The hard bit was he said to me, 'Please, let's just keep this between you and me.' Of course I honoured that. I was the one talking to all the doctors, going through all the different options and helping him make that decision. Whereas, he wasn't burying his head, but he knew I've got to stay positive here, I'm not going to let this change my life, I'm going to continue being on tour, which was incredible because I really believe in positive thinking, to help you.

"It was about staying positive for him and keeping that smile on my face and going, 'We're going to sort this out.' Then it was like where do I put my feelings, my fears and my traumas about that whole thing. It was like putting a lid on a boiling pot and in the end something had to go.

"I remember I was on the panel and it was at the time of the #MeToo movement and out of nowhere, and I had never spoke about it, I talked about the sexual abuse situation that happened to me when I was younger and I buried for a long, long time. "It was like something had to give, I suppose. I did seek some help, because trying to deal with that coming out and keeping Rod's diagnosis in, I did supplement my own strength with some medication to help balance things out.

"Once we did discuss it more publicly I was able to wean myself and then cope, it was like treading water and feeling like I was going to drown."

Penny completely understood why Rod, 81, wanted to keep his cancer diagnosis secret at the time, because of his global fame and the interest going public would generate, as well as him wanting to protect his eight children.

Penny - who has two sons, Alastair, 20, and Aiden, 14, with the Maggie May singer - said: "You have a certain amount of control in your life whether you look after the hour or the kids or out on business, working, there's a sense of control in your life, and cancer takes away that control. I think the immediate reaction is I need to be in control, this is the only way I can do it

"First of all you're thinking, 'What kind of cancer? How fast is it growing? Has it spread.' To inform your loved ones too soon can bring on undue stress."

In May 2000, Rod was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, for which he underwent surgery the same month and made a full recovery.

Since his own cancer battles, Rod has become a vocal advocate for prostate cancer awareness, urging men to go to the doctor's and get checked. He has also personally paid for patients in Britain to get MRI scans to speed up the cancer diagnosis process.

When Penny share her own experience of sexual abuse she bravely spoke on live TV about being spiked and assaulted by someone she worked for when she was a teenager and still a virgin.

She said: "I just know he was on top of me and enjoying the experience but I certainly wasn't. I don't really remember much more. I was too afraid to tell anyone."

Penny had gone to the house of the man who had promised to take her to an event where she could make work contacts for her modelling career.

She added: "I was like, 'Oh, someone will be interested, I might get some more work.'

"So I went with him. And he said, 'Oh, I have to stop at my apartment.'"

After accepting a drink "unfortunately the next thing I knew... I found myself face down on a bed with him on top of me".

Lancaster then emotionally added: "I couldn't tell my mum and dad because I thought they would be saying to me, 'What on earth were you doing going back to his house?'

"But he was a guy that I had worked with and he promised me to meet other people and so I was naïve and I trusted him."