Stewart has revealed he felt “fooled” when wife Rachel Hunter walked out on their nine-year marriage.
He admits he was desperately hurt because he thought they would be together for ever.
The 59-year-old rocker also let slip he once almost bedded a transvestite – and only realised his mistake in the throes of passion.
Rod opened his heart in a frank interview with Q Magazine – and told how he was devastated when Rachel ended it.
He said: “It hurt because – and I’m not blaming her – I was a silly bugger and I should have known. I was 45 and she was 21.
It hurt because this was the woman I was going to pledge the rest of my life to. I felt like I’d been fooled, but at the same time there was a sneaky feeling that the old man up there’s got you back.”
Rod says he still feels guilty about leaving Alana Hamilton and Kelly Emberg as both relationships involved children.
And he blamed his split from Rachel – now seeing ice hockey star Sean Avery – on bad “karma”. He tells Q magazine: “I sometimes have guilt pangs about being in two relationships where children were involved that I walked out of.
Then karma got me back because Rachel left me, so all is square now.”
Rod also acknowledges that ex-lover Britt Ekland – the first of his high-profile romances with blonde beauties –“hates me and wishes I was dead”.
The multi-millionaire believes no one should wed before 30.
Rod, who has dated model Penny Lancaster, 33, for four years says: “Women go through this stage between 20 and 30 when they’re very volatile.
I don’t think anyone should get married before they’re 30 because everybody changes and women change the most.
Penny’s steadfast now. I’m very, very lucky to have such a gorgeous woman at my side who likes to have lots of sex with me.”
But Rod hasn’t always been so successful with women.
Once while he was in Australia, he accidentally invited a transvestite to bed.
He explains: “We were all in a bar and there was this gorgeous bird. I thought, ‘Why aren’t any of the guys near her?’
They’d set me up. So I took her back to my hotel, put my hand down there and there’s the old meat and two veg.
I thought I was very good. I said, ‘Look, I’m going to go to sleep – you get that side and be gone in the morning.”
Rod reckons the secret of his success with women is a sense of humour…and a nice bum.
Asked about his top chat-up lines, he replied: “I’d say something like, ‘Would you like to come to the Laundromat and we’ll wash our smalls?’ Anything that was not the obvious.”His other bit of advice on women: “They like money, too.”
Rod celebrates his 60th birthday next month by taking friends and family on a Caribbean cruise.
He said of his career: “It’s been a pretty good ride – and I’m still thoroughly enjoying it.”
The full interview appears in the new issue of Q Magazine, on sale from January 1st.