What Rod Stewart has said about his split from ex-wife
Stewart met Hunter in 1990 when she was 21 and he was 45, marrying three months later before separating in 1999 and officially divorcing in 2006.
Despite his heartbreak, Stewart met his current wife, Penny Lancaster, the day after his split from Hunter in 1999.
Stewart and Lancaster married in 2007 and have two children, with Stewart noting Lancaster has become 'more bossy' since becoming a special constable.
The musician has recently drawn attention for his public support of the Reform party and its leader, Nigel Farage.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
30 minutes ago
- Sky News
One year of Starmer: Nine charts that tell us whether Labour's first year has been a success or failure
It might feel like it's been even longer for the prime minister at the moment, but it's been a whole year since Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a historic landslide, emphatically defeating Rishi Sunak's Conservatives and securing a 174-seat majority. Over that time, Sir Keir and his party have regularly reset or restated their list of milestones, missions, targets and pledges - things they say they will achieve while in power (so long as they can get all their policies past their own MPs). We've had a look at the ones they have repeated most consistently, and how they are going so far. Overall, it amounts to what appears to be some success on economic metrics, but limited progress at best towards many of their key policy objectives. From healthcare to housebuilding, from crime to clean power, and from small boats to squeezed budgets, here are nine charts that show the country's performance before and after Labour came to power, and how close the government are to achieving their goals. Cost of living On paper, the target that Labour have set themselves on improving living standards is by quite a distance the easiest to achieve of anything they have spoken about. They have not set a specific number to aim for, and every previous parliament on record has overseen an increase in real terms disposable income. The closest it got to not happening was the last parliament, though. From December 2019 to June 2024, disposable income per quarter rose by just £24, thanks in part to the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. By way of comparison, there was a rise of almost £600 per quarter during the five years following Thatcher's final election victory in 1987, and over £500 between Blair's 1997 victory and his 2001 re-election. After the first six months of the latest government, it had risen by £144, the fastest start of any government going back to at least 1954. As of March, it had fallen to £81, but that still leaves them second at this stage, behind only Thatcher's third term. VERDICT: Going well, but should have been more ambitious with their target Get inflation back to 2% So, we have got more money to play with. But it might not always feel like that, as average prices are still rising at a historically high rate. Inflation fell consistently during the last year and a half of Rishi Sunak's premiership, dropping from a peak of 11.1% in October 2022 to exactly 2% - the Bank of England target - in June 2024. It continued to fall in Labour's first couple of months, but has steadily climbed back up since then and reached 3.4% in May. When we include housing costs as well, prices are up by 4% in the last year. Average wages are currently rising by just over 5%, so that explains the overall improvement in living standards that we mentioned earlier. But there are signs that the labour market is beginning to slow following the introduction of higher national insurance rates for employers in April. If inflation remains high and wages begin to stagnate, we will see a quick reversal to the good start the government have made on disposable income. VERDICT: Something to keep an eye on - there could be a bigger price to pay in years to come 'Smash the gangs' One of Starmer's most memorable promises during the election campaign was that he would 'smash the gangs', and drastically reduce the number of people crossing the Channel to illegally enter the country. More than 40,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats in the 12 months since Labour came to power, a rise of over 12,000 (40%) compared with the previous year. Labour have said that better weather in the first half of this year has contributed to more favourable conditions for smugglers, but our research shows crossings have also risen on days when the weather is not so good. VERDICT: As it stands, it looks like 'the gangs' are smashing the government Reduce NHS waits One of Labour's more ambitious targets, and one in which they will be relying on big improvements in years to come to achieve. Starmer says that no more than 8% of people will wait longer than 18 weeks for NHS treatment by the time of the next election. When they took over, it was more than five times higher than that. And it still is now, falling very slightly from 41.1% to 40.3% over the 10 months that we have data for. So not much movement yet. Independent modelling by the Health Foundation suggests that reaching the target is "still feasible", though they say it will demand "focus, resource, productivity improvements and a bit of luck". VERDICT: Early days, but current treatment isn't curing the ailment fast enough Halve violent crime It's a similar story with policing. Labour aim to achieve their goal of halving serious violent crime within 10 years by recruiting an extra 13,000 officers, PCSOs and special constables. Recruitment is still very much ongoing, but workforce numbers have only been published up until the end of September, so we can't tell what progress has been made on that as yet. We do have numbers, however, on the number of violent crimes recorded by the police in the first six months of Labour's premiership. There were a total of 1.1m, down by 14,665 on the same period last year, a decrease of just over 1%. That's not nearly enough to reach a halving within the decade, but Labour will hope that the reduction will accelerate once their new officers are in place. VERDICT: Not time for flashing lights just yet, but progress is more 'foot patrol' than 'high-speed chase' so far Build 1.5m new homes One of Labour's most ambitious policies was the pledge that they would build a total of 1.5m new homes in England during this parliament. There has not yet been any new official data published on new houses since Labour came to power, but we can use alternative figures to give us a sense of how it's going so far. A new Energy Performance Certificate is granted each time a new home is built - so tends to closely match the official house-building figures - and we have data up to March for those. Those numbers suggest that there have actually been fewer new properties added recently than in any year since 2015-16. Labour still have four years to deliver on this pledge, but each year they are behind means they need to up the rate more in future years. If the 200,000 new EPCs in the year to March 2025 matches the number of new homes they have delivered in their first year, Labour will need to add an average of 325,000 per year for the rest of their time in power to achieve their goal. VERDICT: Struggling to lay solid foundations Clean power by 2030 Another of the more ambitious pledges, Labour's aim is for the UK to produce 95% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. They started strong. The ban on new onshore wind turbines was lifted within their first few days of government, and they delivered support for 131 new renewable energy projects in the most recent funding round in September. But - understandably - it takes time for those new wind farms, solar farms and tidal plants to be built and start contributing to the grid. In the year leading up to Starmer's election as leader, 54% of the energy on the UK grid had been produced by renewable sources in the UK. That has risen very slightly in the year since then, to 55%, with a rise in solar and biomass offsetting a slight fall in wind generation. The start of this year has been unusually lacking in wind, and this analysis does not take variations in weather into account. The government target will adjust for that, but they are yet to define exactly how. VERDICT: Not all up in smoke, but consistent effort is required before it's all sunshine and windmills Fastest economic growth in the G7 Labour's plan to pay for the improvements they want to make in all the public services we have talked about above can be summarised in one word: "growth". The aim is for the UK's GDP - the financial value of all the goods and services produced in the country - to grow faster than any other in the G7 group of advanced economies. Since Labour have been in power, the economy has grown faster than European rivals Italy, France and Germany, as well as Japan, but has lagged behind the US and Canada. The UK did grow fastest in the most recent quarter we have data for, however, from the start of the year to the end of March. VERDICT: Good to be ahead of other similar European economies, but still a way to go to overtake the North Americans No tax rises Without economic growth, it will be difficult to keep to one of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' biggest promises - that there will be no more tax rises or borrowing for the duration of her government's term. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said last month that she is a 'gnat's whisker' away from being forced to do that at the autumn budget, looking at the state of the economy at the moment. That whisker will have been shaved even closer by the cost implications of the government's failure to get its full welfare reform bill through parliament earlier this week. And income tax thresholds are currently frozen until April 2028, meaning there is already a "stealth" hike scheduled for all of us every year. 5:03 But the news from the last financial year was slightly better than expected. Total tax receipts for the year ending March 2025 were 35% of GDP. That's lower than the previous four years, and what was projected after Jeremy Hunt's final Conservative budget, but higher than any of the 50 years before that. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) still projects it to rise in future years though, to a higher level than the post-WWII peak of 37.2%. The OBR - a non-departmental public body that provides independent analysis of the public finances - has also said in the past few days that it is re-examining its methodology, because it has been too optimistic with its forecasts in the past. If the OBR's review leads to a more negative view of where the economy is going, Rachel Reeves could be forced to break her promise to keep the budget deficit from spiralling out of control. OVERALL VERDICT: Investment and attention towards things like violent crime, the NHS and clean energy are yet to start bearing fruit, with only minuscule shifts in the right direction for each, but the government is confident that what's happened so far is part of its plans. Labour always said that the house-building target would be achieved with a big surge towards the back end of their term, but they won't be encouraged by the numbers actually dropping in their first few months. Where they are failing most dramatically, however, appears to be in reducing the number of migrants making the dangerous Channel crossing on small boats. The economic news, particularly that rise in disposable income, looks more healthy at the moment. But with inflation still high and growth lagging behind some of our G7 rivals, that could soon start to turn. The Data and Forensics
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: power to Zaporizhzhia plant cut off as UN watchdog warns nuclear safety ‘extremely precarious'
All external power lines supplying electricity to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine were down for several hours on Friday, the UN nuclear watchdog said, but the station's management later said power had been restored. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi acknowledged that power had been restored after 3½ hours but added on X that nuclear safety 'remains extremely precarious in Ukraine'. The Ukrainian energy minister blamed Russian shelling for severing the last power line to the plant and its six reactors. Ukraine's power distribution operator said its technicians had taken action to restore it. Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, which is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool, switched during the outage to running on diesel generators, the IAEA said. Ukraine has accused Vladimir Putin of 'publicly humiliating' Donald Trump after Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv hours after the two leaders spoke by phone. Luke Harding reports that Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the seven-hour raid as a 'deliberate act of terror' that 'immediately followed the call between Washington and Moscow'. It was one of the most severe assaults of the war and a 'clear interpretation of how Moscow interprets diplomacy', the Ukrainian president added. The attack overnight to Friday involved more than 550 Russian drones and ballistic missiles, with officials saying one person was killed and at least 23 people injured. Zelenskyy said interceptor drones had proved effective in downing many Russian drones in the Kyiv assault and issued a new call for their rapid development and production. 'We are scaling this up as much as possible,' he said in his nightly video address. 'More production of these interceptor drones, more training and more preparation for our drone operators. This is a clear task.' Trump spoke with Zelenskyy on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Andrew Roth reports. The call with Zelenskyy came after Moscow's attack on Kyiv and as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine. Zelenskyy called the conversation 'important and useful' and said he and Trump discussed Ukraine's air defence capabilities, joint defence production and 'mutual purchases and investments'. Trump expressed disappointment after speaking with Putin in a call, saying: 'I'm very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don't think he's there. I don't think he's there and I'm very disappointed. I'm just saying, I don't think he's looking to stop, and that's too bad.' Germany was exploring the possibility of buying more Patriot air defence systems from the US for Ukraine, a government spokesman said, as Russia intensifies its aerial attacks. Asked about reports the government in Berlin had reached out to Washington over a deal for new anti-missile systems, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said on Friday he could 'confirm that more intensive discussions are indeed taking place on this'. Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the issue in a call with Trump on Thursday, according to reports. Russia and Ukraine announced a fresh prisoner swap on Friday as part of agreements reached between them during talks in Istanbul last month. Volodymyr Zelenskyy published photographs of freed Ukrainian troops wrapped in blue and yellow flags. He did not say how many Ukrainians had been returned. Russia's defence ministry also reported the swap, saying Kyiv handed over a group of its servicemen who were currently in Moscow-allied Belarus, while also not saying how many troops were exchanged. Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer will co-chair talks with other European leaders on boosting Ukraine's defences, the Elysee Palace said. 'There will certainly be a discussion on how to seriously maintain Ukraine's combat capability,' it said on Friday, adding that the French president and the British prime minister would co-chair the meeting of Kyiv's allies by video linkduring the French leader's visit to the UK next week.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Oasis reunion: A high-five and a hug - the gestures were there, but ultimately it was all about the music
Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years - with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait. After the split in 2009, for many years Noel said he would never go back - and for a long time, as the brothers exchanged insults through separate interviews (and on social media, for Liam), it seemed pretty unlikely to ever happen. But now, here they are. As they walked out on stage at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, all eyes were on the Gallaghers for a sense of their relationship - dare we say it, friendship? - now after all these years. There was no reference to their fall-out or making up, but the gestures were there - lifting hands together as they walked out for the first time. Headlines and tweets of speculation and then confirmation of the reunion filled the screens as the show started. "This is happening," said one, repeatedly. In the end, it was all about the music. Liam has received criticism in the past for his voice not being what it once was, but back on stage with his brother tonight he delivered exactly what fans would have hoped for - a raw, steely-eyed performance, snarling vocals, and the swagger that makes him arguably the greatest frontman of his day. This was Oasis sounding almost as good as they ever have. 2:56 They opened with Hello, because of course, "it's good to be back". And then Acquiesce, and those lyrics: "Because we need each other/ We believe in one another." The song is said to be about friendship in the wider sense, rather than their brotherly bond and sibling rivalry, but you can't help but feel like it means something here. Over two hours, they played favourite after favourite - including Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and Roll With It. In the mid-section, Liam takes his break for Noel to sing Talk Tonight, Half The World Away and Little By Little; the tempo slows but there is by no means a lull, with the fans singing all his words back to him. Liam returns for hits including Stand By Me, Slide Away, Whatever and Live Forever, before sending the crowd wild (or even wilder) with Rock And Roll Star. When the reunion announcement was made last summer, it quickly became overshadowed by the controversy of dynamic pricing causing prices to rocket. As he has done on X before, Liam addressed the issue on stage with a joke. "Was it worth the £4,000 you paid for the ticket?" he shouted at one point. "Yeah," the crowd shouts back; seemingly all is forgiven. After Rock And Roll Star, the dream that very quickly became a reality for this band, Noel introduced the rest of the group, calling Bonehead a "legend". Then he acknowledges all their young fans, some who maybe weren't even born when they split. "This one is for all the people in their 20s who've never seen us before, who've kept this shit going," he says before the encore starts with The Masterplan. Noel follows with Don't Look Back In Anger, and the screens fill with Manchester bees in reference to the arena bombing and how the song became the sound of hope and defiance for the city afterwards. 1:31 During Wonderwall, there's a nice touch as Liam sings to the crowd: "There are many things I would like to say to you, but I don't speak Welsh." It is at the end of Champagne Supernova, which closes the set, that it happens; Noel puts down his guitar, and they come together for a high-five and a back-slap, a blink-and-you'd miss it hug. 0:26 "Right then, beautiful people, this is it," Liam had told the crowd as he introduced the song just a few minutes earlier. "Nice one for putting up with us over the years." From the roar of the audience, it's safe to say most people here would agree it's been worth it.
