Family vacations can be a trial for relationships. Divorce attorneys often note that once summer is over, things pick up again. It seems that seeing your partner up close for extended periods of time can lead some to seek a divorce decree.
But in the case of footballer Kyle Walker and his badly betrayed wife Annie, the opposite is true.
Shortly after the European Championships ended in July, Kyle and Annie took their four sons to the all-inclusive luxury resort Regnum Carya near Antalya in Turkey. There, the couple and their children – Roman, 11, Riaan, seven, Reign, five, and Rezon, born in April – enjoyed the white sandy beaches and walks in the on-site pine forest.
Shortly after the European Championships ended in July, Kyle Walker and Annie Kilner took their four sons to the all-inclusive luxury resort Regnum Carya near Antalya in Turkey
Kyle moved out of his parents’ home in January after it emerged he had fathered two children with his on-again, off-again love Lauryn Goodman (pictured)
Kyle presumably took his sons out for a game of soccer on the hotel’s FIFA-standard soccer fields.
So much family time might not be what you’d expect, considering Kyle moved out of the family home in January after it was revealed he had fathered two children with his on-again, off-again relationship Lauryn Goodman.
But that wasn’t all: after returning, the family of six left together again.
This time they opted for a luxury caravan park in Abersoch, Wales, where Kyle, 34, played football with the kids on the beach and they had a simple barbecue party for Annie’s 32nd birthday.
The Walker family quietly returned to Cheshire in mid-August, while her former lover Lauryn signed up for even more limelight on E4’s Celebs Go Dating, reportedly costing £55,000, on top of the £150,000-a-year Kyle pays her to support her children.
And – despite reports that Kyle remained banished from the £3million marital home in Prestbury – he in fact moved back in just as quietly.
As this newspaper reported on Wednesday, the estranged couple have now been experimenting with reheating the wedding soufflé for a month, and all seems to be going well.
In August, the couple were spotted on the beach in Abersoch, North Wales, as they celebrated Annie’s 31st birthday. Kyle brought a huge barbecue to the sand using a quad bike and set up a dining area using windbreaks
Sources close to them explain that they both want to do everything they can to restore their marriage, and having him under one roof is the “first step” to achieving that.
After Annie endures so much public humiliation at the hands of her cheating husband, you wonder how they manage such a daunting task.
Yet the rules Annie has set for her husband seem relatively simple.
The most important rule of all – an unbreakable one – is the agreement that neither Kyle nor Annie will ever get involved with Lauryn Goodman.
In addition, discussions about Lauryn’s children must go through the proper legal channels.
This is not only a matter of trust but also, as we will see, a reaction to Lauryn’s behavior, especially online, which is painful for the couple and for their children.
Neither Kyle nor Annie follow her on social media. Friends are asked not to repeat the stories she rehearses on her social media channels, on television or in other interviews.
I’ve heard they’ve both had enough of her and the drama she causes.
And while Kyle and Annie’s families hope they can fully reconcile, there’s no pressure from parents or siblings.
Instead, it’s been very simple. Someone close to them told me that “they spent the whole summer with the kids and at the end of it they realized they didn’t want to split the family up again.
“He has to earn Annie’s trust and she’s clear that hasn’t happened yet, but she’s letting him come back to live with them. They’re just making the kids a priority. It’s just a matter of him being there, and being there, and being there.
“They’re taking it slow and they’re not completely reconciled yet, but they’re under the same roof. They’re taking it slow to see how Annie feels.”
Fascinatingly, there has been no therapy or relationship counselling. There are also no curfews or other requirements for public behaviour. The source says: ‘He’s not really changing his lifestyle, other than focusing on his family and football.’
A friend said: ‘Their family is the centre of both their lives. They’re not sure at this point whether they can work it out, but they want to give it the best chance to work.
‘They don’t want the children to come from a broken home and they’ve been together since they were 16, so they are each other’s world.
‘Annie is very protective of the boys and doesn’t want to get divorced. Kyle wants to be home with Annie and the kids.
“They’re not back together in the sense that all is forgiven and forgotten, but they’re physically living in the same place and trying to find a way through it all.”
The source added: ‘Before this, he would go home every night and be there with the kids at bedtime. So this isn’t radically different in some ways, but it does feel like a significant step.
“It would be too big a leap to say that he and Annie have resolved their issues, because there is still a lot to be done.”
A friend said, “Annie is very protective of the boys and doesn’t want a divorce. Kyle wants to be home with Annie and the kids
It’s a surprising twist in what seemed like yet another tale of Premier League infidelity, which began in 2019 when Kyle, during a temporary split from his childhood sweetheart Annie, had an affair with pouting influencer Lauryn – who subsequently fell pregnant with son Kairo.
Shortly after, however, Kyle and Annie got back together and married.
But in the winter of 2022, Kyle and Lauryn met again. The following summer, their only daughter, Kinara, was born.
Rumors about the baby’s paternity swirled, fueled by Lauryn’s “KW” necklace and multiple hints on social media.
On December 27 of last year – knowing that Annie was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child and that her husband was away playing soccer – Lauryn texted her with the shocking news: “Hey, I’m Lauryn. I just wanted to let you know that Kyle is the father of our daughter.”
Annie responded by throwing Kyle out of the family home. Lauryn gave an interview confirming that he was the father of both children before Kyle told his side of the story, saying he had made “stupid choices” and mistakes. He begged for forgiveness.
The England defender and Manchester City right-back insisted there was ‘no relationship whatsoever’ with Lauryn, although he admitted she had been ‘a friend for a long time’.
Documents produced in July for a court case over Lauryn’s demands for increased child support quickly became notorious – one of her requests was for £32,000 to astroturf part of the garden at the £2.4million Sussex home Kyle had bought for her, to encourage her daughter’s footballing abilities. The judge, unimpressed, refused Lauryn the £350,000-a-year she had asked for.
You might imagine that the lawsuit would end hostilities between the two sides.
That’s not the case, though. Lauryn, who makes her living as an influencer, continues to post on social media, much of it about her children. This summer, she also posted a significant amount about Kyle and his wife Annie’s alleged shortcomings.
Annie, Lauryn says, wrote “so many untruths” when covering the lawsuit. When asked if Annie was an innocent party, Lauryn wrote, “I don’t really think so.” She quoted followers who called her former lover a “scumbag of a man.”
And during the July hearings, it was revealed that Lauryn – who lived in a multi-million dollar home Walker bought for her in Sussex – had befriended a neighbour of Kyle and Annie’s in Cheshire and had sent her a text asking her to film the pair in the garden on her mobile phone. A text message was read out which read: ‘Wait till they fight. Get some letters. Kill them.’
Lauryn’s comments have been so extensive and virulent that the Walkers now have a legal team monitoring everything she says online. They may still decide to file a civil lawsuit for harassment against her, and a high-level meeting of their advisors was held last month to that end.
The Walkers now have a legal team monitoring everything Lauryn Goodman says online
The decision was to wait – for now – but it is a decision that is still under review. The couple wants to wait to see if things stabilize without taking action.
Lauryn, meanwhile, has a habit of hinting at the prospect of “evidence” of Kyle’s misconduct. Some have lamented the extent to which she shares details about her children’s lives online, recently extending to filming son Kairo apparently cuddling a photo of his absent father.
Some believe that Lauryn’s ultimate goal is to cause enough turmoil to drive Kyle and Annie apart for good.
But I understand that Annie wasn’t at all upset about the publication of photos last month of Kyle playing with Kairo in the park, as she already knew he had met the boy in September of last year.
What Annie found even more interesting was that Kyle was clearly wearing his wedding ring during the meeting.
Lauryn remains in the spotlight for the time being via Celebrities Go Dating. Judging by the comments on the show’s Facebook page, Lauryn is hugely unpopular with some viewers. On screen, the show has been an uncomfortable viewing experience so far, with potential lovers seemingly uninterested in her.
Meanwhile, the online comments about her have been vicious. Surely this can’t be the future Lauryn, who at times seems vulnerable, was hoping for. On screen, she’s cried and said she’s finding it “really hard” and “really uncomfortable” to start over as a single mother. But honestly, given everything that’s happened, how else could this end?
