Rod Stewart watches with pride as the ice hockey star’s son Liam gets married in Croatia as he joins glamorous wife Penny Lancaster and his ex Rachel Hunter in a lavish ceremony.

Rod Stewart was a proud father of the groom when he attended his son Liam’s Nicole Artukovich wedding in Croatia on Friday.

The bride and groom were accompanied by their mixed-race family when they met at St. Ignatius Church in Dubrovnik.

Singer Rod, 79, beamed as he looked alongside his glamorous wife Penny Lancaster, 53, who looked incredible in a lilac satin dress with a thigh-high slit.

Ice hockey star Liam, 28, got engaged to project manager Nicole last July, two months before welcoming their first child together, a son called Louie.

Her mother is New Zealand model Rachel Hunter, Sir Rod’s second wife, who looked incredible in a teal dress at the wedding.

Also in attendance were Rod’s youngest sons Alastair, 18, and Aiden, 13, his sons with wife Penny.

Also among Rod’s vast brood are Sean, 43, and Kimberly, 44, with ex-wife Alana Stewart; his daughter Ruby, 36, with his ex-girlfriend Kelly Emberg; Liam’s sister Renée, 31; and Sara, 59.

Rachel and Rod were married from 1990 to 2006.

The couple met at a Los Angeles nightclub the night before Sir Rod, then 45, planned to propose to model Kelly Emberg, with whom he shares daughter Ruby.

But Sir Rod was in love with Rachel, then 21, who had recently appeared in a high-profile Sports Illustrated fitness video.

The couple had Renee and son Liam before going their separate ways.

Speaking to The Times, Renee, who recently qualified as a yoga teacher, revealed how her father’s brood of children (he now has eight with five different women) would get together for “incredible” “tribal gatherings” when she was younger. .

But she said she would hide her famous father’s identity at school because she was determined to be herself.

“It’s just not okay to talk about your parents,” he said. “When I was in school in Los Angeles, if people asked me what my dad did, I would say, ‘Oh, he’s in entertainment.’

‘No disrespect, but you want to make your own life. You want to be your own person. Trading it can really ruin you and make people cringe.

Renee, who has modeled for Dolce & Gabbana, explained that her father was often the picture of pride on these family vacations, but that her mother and her other exes were not invited.

While it wouldn’t have been a surprise for the son of one of the world’s biggest rock stars to pursue his father’s great sporting passion of football, Liam opted for ice hockey.

“I love it,” said Liam, speaking exclusively to Sportsmail in 2015 about his role as one of Coventry’s defensive forwards and penalty killers.

Liam currently plays for Milton Keynes Lightning in the NIHL, the second tier of Great Britain’s professional ice hockey leagues.

‘For some reason, I get more satisfaction from blocking shots than from scoring a goal.

“I don’t know why, but my coach in the youth ranks praised me a lot for doing that, so I took him under my wing and kept going.”

‘I broke my foot a couple of times and last year I broke my ankle, but it’s all part of being a hockey player. Everything is healed and I’m ready to go.

“I don’t mind fighting in the corners and maybe a fight here and there.” I’m not going to be the guy who goes out and instigates it, but if something happens, I’m fine.’

That means Rod and Rachel’s son will place his body in the path of pucks traveling at close to 100 mph to prevent his team from conceding goals.

“You never worry about injuries because in that split second when you’re falling you don’t think about it, and when it hits you, that’s the feeling you get,” smiled Stewart, who turns 22 on Monday. “There is no fear.”

So how did a singer’s son, as big as ever at 71, become a professional ice hockey player, and what does dad think about it?

“He supports me, but he would have loved it more if I had played football because it’s his sport,” Liam admitted.

“He loves coming to watch me play, he likes watching the sport, but I’m not sure he’s always been sure of the rules.” I said, “The only thing you have to worry about is when we score, Dad.”

“I’m sure he’ll come to see me in Coventry, but he’s got a UK tour including gigs in Belfast and Sheffield, so he might see me at the away games.”

Liam caught the ice hockey bug when his parents took him to see one of the biggest clubs in the world, the New York Rangers, when he was four years old.

“I played soccer until I was 14, but I was at a New York Rangers game when I was younger and that had a big impact on me,” Liam said. “I told my mother, ‘This is what I want to play.’

“As soon as Spokane called me, my youth team, I thought it might be a sport I could go somewhere and here I am playing professionally.”