Rod Stewart - Personal Life

Personal Life

In May 2000, Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, for which he underwent surgery in the same month. It had been previously reported he suffered from a benign vocal cord nodule. Besides being a major health scare, the resulting surgery also threatened his famous voice, and he had to re-learn how to sing. Since then he has been active in raising funds for The City of Hope Foundation charity to find cures for all forms of cancer, especially those affecting children.

Stewart plays for his LA Exiles team made up of mostly English expatriates plus a few celebrities, including Billy Duffy of The Cult, in a senior soccer league in Palos Verdes, California, He still kicks footballs into the audience during concerts. Despite his father being a supporter of Hibernian, he is a well-known supporter of Celtic, which he mentions in his hit "You're in My Heart", and the Scotland national team. Stewart also follows Manchester United as his English side, and he explains his love affair with both Celtic and United in Frank Worrall's book Celtic United.

Stewart is a keen model railway enthusiast. His 23 x 124-foot HO scale layout in his Los Angeles home is modelled after the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads during the 1940s. Called the Three Rivers City, the layout was featured in the cover story of the December 2007 and December 2010 issues of Model Railroader Magazine. In the 2007 article Stewart said that he would rather be in a model railroad magazine than a music magazine. He has a second layout at his UK home. That layout is based on Britain's East Coast Main Line. Stewart's home is located in Epping, Essex, on part of the Copped Hall estate

A keen car enthusiast, Stewart owns one of the 400 Ferrari Enzos. In 1982, Stewart was car-jacked on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard, while he was parking his $50,000 Porsche. The car was subsequently recovered.

On 11 October 2005, Stewart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard (star number 2093). On 18 and 19 April 2006 Stewart was the guest artist and celebrity vocal coach on American Idol, leading the remaining seven finalists in singing entries from the Great American Songbook.

In July 2007, Stewart collected his CBE for "services to music" at Buckingham Palace, commenting; "It's a marvellous occasion. We're the only country in the world to honour the common man." Stewart was estimated to have a fortune of £115 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2011, making him one of the 20 richest people in the British music industry.