Rod's high heels make him as tall as leggy wife Penny

It was against that background that the pair arrived at a party this week looking strangely different - quite bizarrely they appeared for the first time to be of equal stature.

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As guests including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Joely Richardson and Selina Scott filed into the party thrown by jewellers Cartier at London's

Natural History Museum, eyebrows were raised about the couple's appearance.

And it seems eyebrows were not all that was being raised.

On closer inspection, it turns out Rod's patent leather boots also had some quite sizeable lifts on the heels.

The chunky lifts looked to have put an extra two inches onto the Scottish singer's height.

Intriguingly, Penny - who is most usually the one seen out in high heels - wore low flat ballet-style pumps for the glittering party.

The end effect was that 62-year-old Rod, who stands 5ft 10ins in his stocking feet, was lifted to seem almost the same height as his much taller 36-year-old wife.

Whether Penny's flat shoes were worn at her husband's insistence we may never know. Perhaps they were just more comfortable after all that high-octane ballroom dancing she has been putting in recent weeks.

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Speaking to the Mail at the party, Rod was quick to dispel talk of any jealousy he may have for Ian Waite, Penny's 6ft 3ins professional dance partner in the BBC1 show.

Asked whether he minded Penny being manhandled by other statuesque dancers on the show, quick came Rod's reply: "It's not other men, there is only one.

"He's a very nice boy. We get on brilliantly. There is no scandal there."

Then he added in rather unlikely terms: "We're old school mates - we go back a long way together."