The singer's sprawling family tree began with a painful decision made before fame and fortune arrived. Decades later, it includes an audacious proposal over sandwiches, a multimillion-dollar courtroom fight, an enduring marriage pact, and a baby whose meaningful name moved an entire family.
Rod Stewart has eight children with five women, and their stories rarely follow the route expected of a rock star's family. Some entered entertainment, but others chose hockey, wellness, writing, business, and lives kept almost entirely away from public view.
Rod Stewart celebrates backstage after his performance at Glastonbury Festival alongside four of his eight children, Ruby, Renee, Aiden, and Alastair, on June 30, 2025. | Source: Instagram/sirrodstewart
Susannah Boffey and the Daughter They Could Not Raise
Stewart and his teenage girlfriend, Susannah Boffey, met at a nightclub before his music career took off. Their relationship produced his first child, but the young couple had neither the money nor the stability to raise her.
Their daughter was placed in care at one and moved between foster homes before Evelyn and Gerald Thubron adopted her at five. Boffey later said Stewart had romanticized their relationship in "Brighton Beach," a song from his 2013 album "Time," and accused him of abandoning both mother and child.
Stewart's version carried guilt of its own. In a later interview, he recalled the fear of telling his parents about the pregnancy.
"My mum wanted to know if I was going to get married, and I said, 'Well, not really, Mum,' you know. She's really old-fashioned. She said, 'Well, she won't get married in white, will she?' I didn't have a [expletive] clue what that meant."
Rod Stewart and his mother, Elsie Rebecca Stewartm in a post celebrating Mother's Day, from March 10, 2024. | Source: Instagram/sirrodstewart
Boffey and Stewart never rebuilt their relationship. Yet the daughter they gave up eventually found a way back to her famous father, though that reconciliation took almost half a century.
