Lady Penny Lancaster-Stewart always has sweaty palms.
The 45-year-old model frequently feels embarrassed because she suffers from the condition hyperhidrosis – which means she has more sweat glands than she should – and her hands are often clammy.
She said: "I have hyperhidrosis, you can see a little shining hand going on. A lot of the time they’re bone dry and fine but its something to do with the nervous system – I’m not nervous – but even when I’m excited and looking forward to something."
Penny was first diagnosed with the condition as a teenager, when it was so bad she had to wear gloves to take her exams, but has learned to live with it over the years.
She recalled on ‘Loose Women’: "It started when I was a teenager and I was doing exams.
"had to wear white cotton gloves because on a page a few lines below [where I was writing] would get damp.
"The doctor suggested electrotherapy or an operation to cut a vein under your arm, but then you could start sweating somewhere else… It’s one of those things I’ve learned to live with but you get embarrassed."
Penny – who has sons Alistair, 11, and Aiden, seven, with husband Sir Rod Stewart – tries to avoid shaking hands when she is first introduced to someone new so she can conceal her condition.
She said: "That’s why I always go in [for a kiss] when I meet someone."
And Penny was "terrified" not long after meeting her husband when she offered to give him a manicure and quickly realised that meant he would detect her problem.
She said: "When I first met Rod he wanted to get a manicure and the place he wanted to go to was shut, so I said I’d do it then thought, ‘Oh what have I just said?’ so I had the lights really low and he was like are you sure you can see what you’re doing? I was terrified.
In the early days of her career, Penny quickly learned tricks to mask her condition.
She explained: "In my early modelling days, if I was doing swimwear or a bit more scantily clad, I’d ask the photographer for a wind machine and they’d say aren’t you cold? And I’d say, ‘No I’m hot, but it’s just the wind would dry them out."
Lady Penny Lancaster-Stewart’s sweaty palms
