Penny Lancaster bravely opens up on harrowing inappropriate | UK News

Penny Lancaster has bravely opened up about a collection of inappropriate assaults she endured from her childhood through to her teenage years. The 54-year-old model, who is married to legendary singer Sir Rod Stewart, 80, has detailed these harrowing experiences for the first time in her memoir, Someone Like Me, which incorporates an account of an assault at 17 where she believes she was drugged by a fashion designer.

Penny, whose e book is set to be launched at the end of September, shared some of its contents with the Daily Mail on Saturday, revealing how repeated encounters with predatory males left her deeply traumatised. According to the Mail, her memoir begins with her worry of the sound of footsteps, stemming from an incident when she was just 5 years previous and a man tried to abduct her from her garden. Her father later caught the person and “taught that guy a lesson he’d never forget”, according to Penny’s e book.

At the age of 12, she was assaulted in an underpass by a man who grabbed her from behind as she walked alone to college. Despite managing to escape and helping the police in figuring out her attacker, the unsuitable man was arrested, and her assailant was never introduced to justice.

The Mail reviews that this trauma led to Penny developing hyperhidrosis, a condition inflicting her fingers and toes to excessively sweat when she feels anxious. The publication also revealed that she suffered a “terrifying” inappropriate assault at the start of her modelling profession when she was 17, a secret she has stored until now.

The Mail reported: “En route to a fundraising event with a much older client – a male fashion designer she still won’t name – Lancaster was invited into his home and handed a martini while he ‘collected something’.

Her next memory was waking up on a mattress in his bedroom. Penny revealed: “I had been drugged. I used to be mendacity face down with no underwear on and he was between my legs. I do not know to this day if I used to be raped.

“The Mail continued: “The next morning, the predator called Lancaster to ask if he might buy her a diamond necklace. She put the telephone down.

“Penny confided to the Mail that sharing these experiences in her book has helped her to “dissect and break it all down”.

She mentioned that actress Kate Silverton explained a technique where victims revisit their traumatised younger selves. Penny elaborated: “You go back to Penelope as a 12-year-old, the same with the five- and 17-year-olds, and strive to keep in mind what she was going through, maintain her hand.

“However, she admitted she had not yet tried the therapy. Penny also faced belittlement on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021 by former judge Greg Wallace. She commented: “I’m not sure that somebody like Gregg is even conscious of how his behaviour impacts people around him; probably he is acquired away with it for too long.

“And he’s a relatively short man, so, at first glance, not an intimidating character. You’re put on the back foot.”

The BBC has confirmed that Greg, 60, has been dismissed after 45 accusations of inappropriate behaviour against him had been upheld.