Rod Stewart and Wife Alana: Are They Gonna Last Forever?

This is the saga of two platinum blonds, Rod and Alana Stewart. No, make that three blonds, counting New York model Kelly Emberg, who has been at Rod’s side in Acapulco, Dallas, New York and Los Angeles over the past three months. Add a brunette with a fondness for miniskirts, Danish model Christina Meyer. Stewart, 39, and Meyer jetted via Concorde from London to New York last fall. Although they motored from Kennedy Airport separately (he by limo, she by taxi), they found themselves locked out of New York’s Mayfair Regent Hotel at dawn the next morning. When word spread that Stewart’s London office had paid Meyer’s airfare, at least one reporter labeled the escapade a publicity stunt, mindful that Rod has an LP due out early this year.

With such intercontinental high jinks afoot, the question arises: Whither Alana? The Stewarts spent Christmas together in London with their children, Kimberly, 4, and Sean, 3. But that apparent attempt at reconciliation was marred by quarreling and ended with Alana, 38, heading home for Beverly Hills with the kids but not Rod in tow.

“He has to decide if he wants to be a man with a wife and kids or a freewheeling bachelor,” said Alana of Stewart. “If he wants to go back to his old ways, then all power to him. It’s just a shame he didn’t decide before having two kids, because it’s always the children who get hurt.”

The couple wed in April 1979, two years after Alana’s divorce from George Hamilton, father of her 9-year-old son, Ashley. Rod had previously avoided the altar but cohabited with Britt Ekland for several years. That liaison snapped when Stewart spied Alana, and in the tangled aftermath Britt slapped Rod with a $15 million palimony suit, which was later settled out of court.

Not long after their Beverly Hills nuptials, Alana announced to the British press that “there could never be any question of me suing Rod for money because our marriage is forever. We both know that.” She neglected to

mention their premarital contract, which prevents her from vacuuming Rod’s leopard-skin pockets in the event of a divorce.

Tracking the British rocker has indeed kept the London tabloids hopping. In October Rod popped up in Acapulco, where Emberg was judging a beauty contest. She collared Rod as a guest judge, and photos of the smooching twosome were splashed across the English papers. Alana, meantime, was preoccupied with rekindling her acting career, taking parts in Swing Shift with Goldie Hawn, ABC’s new series Masquerade and the upcoming Allan Carr remake of the 1960 movie Where the Boys Are.

“God knows this is confusing—like something out of As the World Turns,” concedes Stewart’s manager, Arnold Stiefel. “If they can survive this, their marriage will be better for it.” Alana is cautiously optimistic. “Rod and I have been through a very rocky period, and maybe we can make a new start. You have to keep trying until you reach the point where you just can’t forgive anymore.” Stiefel, for one, agrees that Rod and Alana “have a shot,” but he hastens to add, “I wouldn’t bet my house on it.”