Stewart 'welcomes love child into family'

Rod Stewart's secret love child has spoken of her joy at being welcomed back into the rocker's life.

46-year-old Sarah Streeter, whom the 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy' singer fathered at the age of 18, told the Daily Mail of her gratitude at being invited to meet other members of his extended family for the first time.

"At the moment it’s all baby steps, but whatever issues were there have all been forgotten, for both of us," Streeter said. "It’s all water under the bridge now. It’s nerve-racking, too, but just as much so for him as it is for me.

"There’s no anger there. I never was angry about what happened really, just sad. But now I’m older I see things differently and realise that it has been as difficult for him over the years as it has been for me. Now we’re at the start of a new chapter, and that’s wonderful."

Streeter, who was put up for adoption as a baby after Stewart ended a teenage relationship with her birth mother Susannah, explained that her famous father had upped his attempts to reach out to her after the death of her adoptive mother in 2007.

She continued: "We did have quite a lot of contact at first in the middle-to-late ­Eighties. I even went to stay at his house in Epping. But then it fizzled out, on both our parts, really. I got on with my life and he got on with his.

"Now I’m getting to know him more I think I understand what went on. Rod has actually come into my life in a big way since mother’s gone, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

"At the end of the day, I’d been adopted, I was their child, and he didn’t want to step on their toes. But at the time, of course, I couldn’t see it like that.

"I was in a very bad place for a long time after Mum’s passing and not ready for anything else, but he showed me he was there for me and that was very important."

Streeter, who has yet to meet Alastair, Stewart's first son with wife Penny Lancaster, stated that she didn't mind the relative distance of their relationship, as she is just happy to be acknowledged as part of his family.

"For a while, he didn’t really talk about me but, now, he talks about his seven children and an eighth on the way, not the six, and that's lovely," she said. "Finally, it’s all turned out the way I wanted it to, and it couldn’t be better."