Penny Lancaster makes rare parenting admission as she delves into ‘tragic’ home incident: ‘I guarded them’

The couple have always been open about their marriage, especially since Lancaster became a panellist on the ITV show Loose Women – but have always kept their children’s lives and issues out of the spotlight.

Today, Lancaster joined her Loose Women colleagues Charlene White, Denise Welch and Linda Robson, and made a rare admission about the way she has brought up her two sons – revealing how she was scared to be vulnerable around them.

Whilst discussing the topic of whether they cry in front of their children, Lancaster admitted: “I found with them growing up you sort of, you want them to feel safe and protected and I think for a while when they were younger, I would probably guard them from me being too emotional about certain things.

“Because I don’t think they had the maturity to understand and it might have kind of caused some concern or fear. As they got older, we kind of humanised the emotions that we have. Tears and Rod will cry over Celtic losing for whatever reason.”

Discussing her recent challenges when going through menopause, Lancaster continued: “The most tragic moment for me, where my husband and my boys were incredibly supportive, during lockdown I was having the most awful breakdown due to menopause and my doctor at the time had put me on anti-depressants.

“We didn’t recognise what it was and I literally collapsed on the kitchen floor, I was just at my wit’s ends… Rod said ‘Boys give mummy a minute’ and Rod came to my side and gave me a minute to gather myself.

“They came in and hugged me and said ‘Mummy, it’s okay’. Now, particularly my eldest son who is 18, he just recognises my body language. I don’t even have to cry, he can just sense the tone of my voice, the certain way I move and he’s like ‘Are you alright mum?’

“So we’ve grown to be able to be open, they can tell us how they are feeling, if they had a bad day at school or something happened with a girlfriend, and we can express how we feel and it’s important to want to share those feelings.”

This isn’t the first time that Lancaster has opened up about her menopause struggle and previously revealed the full story of her breakdown during a discussion with The Times.

Recalling the moment it calls came to a head, she explained she was cooking dinner for her family and became frustrated when he sons wouldn’t come down for dinner after calling them multiple times.

“The two boys and Rod. And I picked up the plates and I threw them across the kitchen. Which is an outrageous thing to think of — who the hell would throw the dinner?

“But the physical act [was hard to stop]… Because I couldn’t contain it any more. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I didn’t want to hurt myself. But I felt like it was getting to that point.

“Hurting myself. Hurting someone. I threw these plates of food across the kitchen as hard as I could, to make as much noise as I could. As if the noise… as if someone would wake up, someone would notice me, someone would have the answer.

“I can’t do this. What the hell is going on with me?’ I thought I was going mad. Rod said, ‘Right, we’ve got to get you to the doctor’s. You can’t carry on like this. There’s got to be an answer. There’s got to be something’.”