Thirteenth baby on way for 72-year-old dad

London: When Richard Roden became Britain's oldest father of twins last year, the 72-year-old and wife Lisa, 26, were soon talking about trying for more children.

Earlier this week it emerged their wish for a brother or sister for Ruby and Emily had been granted in double-quick time. Lisa Roden is two months pregnant after conceiving within weeks of trying for a baby.

The new addition will be the 13th child for her three-times-married husband and, like the twins, was conceived without the aid of fertility treatment.

Roden, a retired welder, said: "I'm overjoyed. I always said I'd have another. Being a dad at 72 is definitely more tiring than in my twenties, but it gives me such a lot of pleasure."

Roden was 71 when Ruby and Emily were born in February last year, 50 years after the birth of his first child. He told how he is often mistaken for the children's grandfather while out with the twins near their home in Walsall, West Midlands.

Soulmates

He also gets taunted with shouts of "cradle snatcher" when the couple are together. The couple met while studying at an adult education college five years ago. They became lovers a year later after a seaside trip to Weston-super-Mare, and married last September.

Lisa Roden, who has an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, said of her pregnancy: "I can't believe how quickly it has happened. We will have three babies under the age of three when this next one is born. Richard and I are soulmates. There's a big age gap but it doesn't feel like that and he's a great dad to the twins. He changes their nappies like an expert and he will be just a good a dad this time around."

Roden said of his wife: "My first impression of her was her lovely big blue eyes. I never thought we'd end up together because of my age. But we are just like any other couple in love. I haven't made a will out yet, but everything I've got will go to Lisa and the children."

Speaking last October when the couple went public with news of the twins' birth, Roden put his virility down to eating home-grown root vegetables.

He said the couple would try for another baby and he hoped for another boy because only three out of his 12 children so far are sons.

But the grandfather of 36 and great-grandfather of nine admitted not everybody in his family approved of the relationship, with a granddaughter telling reporters the situation was "ridiculous."