Rachel whistles time on football fanatic

By Louisa Cleave

Rachel Hunter has dumped soccer-mad rocker Rod Stewart after eight years of marriage because he has become boring.

Friends said the supermodel had tired of the monotony of life with her husband, who spends nights in front of the television or playing with his train set.

The couple announced their split through agents in Los Angeles yesterday, but Hunter apparently packed her bags and walked out of their home in Essex, England, after Christmas.

She took their two young children, Renee, aged 6, and Liam, 4.

The couple had no immediate plans to divorce, their statement said.

Hunter is understood to be in Florida with her father, Wayne Hunter, who spent Christmas with her.

Hunter's New Zealand agent, Andy Haden, said the split came "absolutely out of the blue."

The British Daily Mirror said the 30-year-old model told friends the age difference had been the main factor in the collapse of their marriage. Stewart turns 54 tomorrow.

A party at the Dorchester hotel in London on December 16 to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary turned sour when Stewart flirted with one of Hunter's best friends.

A party-goer told the paper: "Rachel was furious - but incredibly cool. She said, 'I know how to deal with him.' She strode up to him, wiggled her hips and he followed her out obediently."

But it was Stewart's increasingly boring lifestyle that ended the marriage. "When he was at home he would be watching telly or playing with his train set in the attic," a friend told the Mirror.

"And if he decided to go out they would always be surrounded by a gang of his mates from way back, telling old war stories and boozing. It gets boring. Rachel's still young and has been with him since she was only 21. Now she's grown up and become a woman in full bloom and realises that she wants different things. There's no animosity, it was just a gradual breakdown."

Former Glenfield girl Hunter and Scotsman Stewart married four months after first meeting in New York.

Their church wedding in Beverly Hills was besieged by television camera crews, photographers and reporters.

It was Hunter's first marriage and the second for Stewart, who married Alana Hamilton in 1979.

He has had a long list of former blond model and actress girlfriends, including Britt Ekland and Kelly Emberg.

Hunter has been pursuing an acting career in Hollywood.
She has appeared in an episode of the American sitcom Mad About You. Estimates of her personal wealth vary between $8 million and $26 million. Her endorsement contracts include make-up, pantyhose and shampoo products.

Stewart's fortune is worth $90 million. Hunter signed a pre-nuptial agreement preventing her from making a claim on his millions.

Stewart's passion for rock music is equalled by his love of football and Hunter has been described as one of the world's most famous football widows.

But in an interview published in December, Hunter said she and Stewart rarely argued.

"We've been very lucky because we've never really seriously fallen out with each other."

Pictured: Rachel Hunter and Rod Stewart