EXCLUSIVELauryn Goodman's most unlikely plan yet: A year after her explosive text detonated footballer Kyle Walker's marriage, the wannabe WAG is cooking up an astonishing pivot, reveals KATIE HIND
Baking bread with her two children, adding sea moss gel to their porridge or massaging their hair in plant-based masks, Lauryn Goodman appears to have found her niche as an Instagram Earth mother.
Sharing tips with thousands of followers, it is her latest reinvention after attempts to set up home with her former lover, the Manchester City and England defender Kyle Walker, failed.
Not that Lauryn, 33, didn’t give it her best shot. For today marks exactly a year since she sent that explosive text to Kyle’s then pregnant wife Annie Kilner, 31, to inform her that her husband was the father of not just her son, but also her baby daughter.
‘Hey it’s Lauryn. I just wanted to quickly tell you that Kyle is the father of our daughter. He’s been having a relationship with us all including the baby & I’ve got everything to prove it.’
Needless to say it wrecked the Walker/Kilner family Christmas, blowing up their lives and sparking the biggest off-pitch scandal of 2024 – if not the decade.
Annie threw Kyle, 34, out of their £4million Cheshire mansion, and as he licked his wounds in a nearby apartment, Lauryn could perhaps be forgiven for thinking she had a chance of starting a proper life with the footballer and their two children, Kairo, five, and one-year-old Kinara.
It was not to be – and an annus horribilis ensued for all.
For Annie, who gave birth to their fourth son in April, the year has been one of separation and divorce papers with only temporary shows of togetherness – at the Euros this summer and most recently at Christmas, when Annie welcomed Kyle back into the family home for the sake of their boys, Roman, 11, Riaan, seven, Reign, five, and ten-month-old Rezon.
Lauryn Goodman is refusing to slip quietly into the background to enjoy life with her young children
Annie Kilner served Kyle Walker divorce papers earlier this year
And despite all her hopes, Lauryn is no better off either. Yet the fame-hungry mother -of-two is still refusing to slip quietly into the background to enjoy life with her young children. ‘Lauryn has no intention of going anywhere,’ says a source close to her. ‘She is all over Instagram insisting she is the perfect Earth mother. In fact she recently employed a new agent to help get her work.
‘What she really wants is to appear on a reality television show. She has already set former glamour model Nicola McLean the task of getting her on Celebrity Big Brother this year [she was a former contestant on the show].
‘She always says she doesn’t want her children to be forgotten but given her determination to be on TV, you have to wonder if she is the one who is desperate for the limelight, the fame and, frankly, to always be connected to Kyle. Many women would just enjoy the life and riches with their children.’
Indeed, that is something I begged Lauryn to do last summer. Ahead of her day in the London Family Court where she would face Kyle over child maintenance issues, I suggested she accept a life without the footballer.
She simply said she couldn’t, and days later hired a new publicist, formerly the PR of her close friend Rebekah Vardy.
All of which makes you wonder: What has actually been achieved by this unedifying saga which, sadly, centres around two innocent youngsters?
Friends tell me Annie has really ‘struggled’ and the fiasco has ‘taken its toll on her health’.
Two months ago she served Kyle with divorce papers – though it is not yet known if they are going through with the separation.
Walker with Annie Kilner and their children
The text that detonated Kyle Walker's marriage to Annie
Annie’s anguish is hardly surprising. As well as learning her husband had cheated for a second time, a court battle in July over child maintenance once again dragged up the details of the dalliances and their aftermath.
‘She could have just taken a very generous financial offer for the children from Kyle,’ said a friend, referring to Lauryn’s pursuit of Kyle for increased funds over and above the £150,000 a year he already provides, as well as a £51,000 car allowance every three years and the right to live in the Sussex home he bought outright.
Lauryn wanted £60,000 more to pay for air conditioning and an astroturf football pitch for daughter Kinara, as Lauryn wants her to be a Lioness.
Lauryn insisted all she wanted was for her two children to have the same as Annie’s four sons.
‘While he is absolutely no angel, when it came to looking after Kairo and Kinara financially, he very much did the right thing,’ said a friend of the footballer. ‘His view and that of those around him was he couldn’t be criticised.’
The judge agreed, saying he found Walker to be ‘reasonable’ and dismissed Lauryn’s claims.
Having failed to get her own way, Lauryn told me how she thought the judge was ‘star-struck’ by Kyle who had just reached the final of the Euros, narrowly losing to Spain.
As well as losing her court battle, meaningful fame still eludes her. After several attempts to get on to reality TV shows – including Celebrity Big Brother, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and others – her appearance this autumn on E4’s Celebs Go Dating failed to garner the sort of headlines she was hoping for.
Her bid to secure her own fly-on-the-wall TV show, which would have been screened on ITV, has also fallen by the wayside.
It started filming this summer amid controversy over her sister Chloe’s decision to ban her from attending her wedding in Portugal. But it has been shelved amid claims of her difficult behaviour and demands – among them an ‘appearance fee’ for Kairo which the production company deemed ‘absolutely ludicrous’.
‘She could have earned a good sum from that show but it wasn’t enough for Lauryn,’ said a source close to the project.
And so the indefatigable Lauryn presses on. She has launched a podcast, broadcast from the £2.5million home paid for by Kyle, in which she continues to rant to close friends about the footballer’s absence as a father. And she has a blog, in which she seeks to reposition herself as a modern mum, often promoting products alongside New Age parenting tips.
As a pal explained: ‘She’s trying everything now, launching all these other platforms.’
And littered among the seemingly innocuous product recommendations are her usual barbed remarks directed at those she feels may have wronged her.
‘It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if she oversteps the mark at some point,’ the friend added. ‘It’s just ranting – she doesn’t seem to understand that words have consequences.’
Perhaps her attendance at a parliamentary discussion on child maintenance earlier this month will go some way to change that.
Meeting with Labour MP Peter Kyle to discuss issues surrounding the Child Maintenance Service, Lauryn bemoaned the hardships of relying on a wealthy former lover to pay her way and a supposed lack of support from the authorities.
No wonder friends are asking, whatever next? ‘The year of madness is surely over,’ one said. ‘Her New Year’s resolution should be quite simple. It’s time for her to get a job.’
How likely that will be is anyone’s guess.
Last week she partied late into the night at two Mayfair nightclubs popular with top footballers – Bagatelle and nearby Mistress of Mayfair – where she was among a gaggle of women enjoying drinks bought by Kyle’s England teammate, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Can this leopard ever change her spots?
‘She’s only interested in fame and money,’ says one source.
‘She glues herself to footballers at every opportunity. And this has caused untold hurt for so many people.’
