Family vacations can be a testing time for relationships. Divorce lawyers often point out that once summer is over, business picks up again. Seeing one’s spouse up close for an extended period can, it seems, prompt some to resort to the decree nisi.
But in the case of footballer Kyle Walker and his much-betrayed wife Annie, the opposite occurred.
Shortly after the Euros ended in July, Kyle and Annie took their four children to the luxury all-inclusive resort Regnum Carya near Antalya, 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 through the pine forest.
Shortly after the end of the European Championship in July, Kyle Walker and Annie Kilner took their four children to the luxury all-inclusive resort Regnum Carya near Antalya in Turkey.
Kyle had moved out of the family home in January after it emerged he had fathered two children with on-and-off lover Lauryn Goodman (pictured).
Kyle is believed to have taken his children to play on the hotel’s FIFA-certified soccer fields.
They may not be expected to spend as much time together as a family, considering Kyle had moved out of the family home in January after it emerged he had fathered two children with on-and-off lover Lauryn Goodman.
But that was not the end of it: upon their return, the family of six was together again.
This time, they chose an exclusive caravan park in Abersoch, Wales, where Kyle, 34, played football on the beach with the kids and celebrated Annie’s 32nd birthday with a simple barbecue.
Then, in mid-August, even as his ex-lover Lauryn signed up for more time in the spotlight on E4’s Celebs Go Dating – for a fee of £55,000, on top of the £150,000 a year she receives from Kyle to support their children – the Walker family quietly returned to Cheshire.
And, despite reports that Kyle was still banished from the £3million marital home in Prestbury, he has, just as quietly, returned there.
As revealed by this newspaper on Wednesday, the estranged couple have already been experimenting with reheating their marriage soufflé for a month now, and everything seems to be going well.
In August, the couple were spotted on Abersoch beach in North Wales as they celebrated Annie’s 31st birthday. Kyle brought a huge barbecue to the sand on a quad bike and set up a dining area with windbreaks.
Sources close to them explain that both are committed to fixing the marriage, and having him under the same roof is the “first step” to making that happen.
After Annie experienced such public humiliation at the hands of her cheating husband, one can’t help but wonder how they manage to handle such a formidable task.
However, it seems that the rules Annie has set for her husband are relatively simple.
The one overriding, unbreakable rule is an agreement that neither Kyle nor Annie will commit themselves in any way to Lauryn Goodman.
Additionally, conversations about Lauryn’s children have to go through the proper legal channels.
This is not just a question of trust but also, as we shall see, a response to Lauryn’s behaviour, particularly online, which has been distressing to the couple and their children.
Neither Kyle nor Annie follow her on social media, and their friends are asked not to repeat the stories she tells on her social media channels, on television, or in other interviews.
I’ve been told that they’re both fed up with her and the drama she creates.
And while Kyle and Annie’s families hope they can fully reconcile, there has been no pressure from their parents or siblings.
Instead, it has been very simple. Someone close to them tells me that “they spent the whole summer with the children and in the end they realized that they did not want to split up the family again.”
‘He has to earn Annie’s trust and she is clear that hasn’t happened yet, but she is going to let him live with them again. They are making the kids the 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, but they’re under the same roof. They’re taking it slow to see how Annie feels.”
Interestingly, he has not received therapy or couples counseling. There are also no curfews or other demands regarding public behavior. According to the source, “he is not really changing his lifestyle beyond making sure he focuses solely on family and football.”
A friend said: ‘Their family is the centre of their lives. Right now they’re not sure they can work it out, but they want to give it the best chance of working.
‘They don’t want children coming from a broken home and they’ve been together since they were 16, so they’re each other’s worlds.
‘Annie is very protective of the kids and doesn’t want a divorce. 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 are physically living in the same place and trying to find a way through all of this.’
The source added: ‘Before this, he would come over to the house every night to be there for bedtime with the kids, so this isn’t radically different in some ways, but it does feel like a significant step.
‘It would be an exaggeration to say that he and Annie have resolved their issues, because there is still a lot of work to be done.’
A friend said: ‘Annie is very protective of the children and doesn’t want a divorce. Kyle wants to be at home with Annie and the children.
It is a shocking twist in what looked like yet another Premier League cheating story, which began in 2019 when, during a temporary split from childhood sweetheart Annie, Kyle had an affair with influencer Lauryn, who then became pregnant with his son Kairo.
However, shortly after, Kyle and Annie got back together and later married.
But in the winter of 2022, Kyle and Lauryn were reunited. The following summer, their only daughter, Kinara, was born.
There were rumors about the baby’s paternity, fueled by Lauryn’s “KW” necklace and multiple clues on social media.
On December 27 last year, upon learning that Annie was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child and that her husband was away from home playing football, Lauryn texted her with some bombshell news: “Hi, this is Lauryn, just wanted to quickly let you know that Kyle is the father of our daughter.”
Annie responded by kicking Kyle out of the family home. Lauryn gave an interview in which she confirmed that he was the father of both children before Kyle told his side of the story, saying that he had made “stupid decisions” and mistakes. He begged for forgiveness.
The English defender and Manchester City right-back insisted that there was “no relationship” with Lauryn, although he admitted that she “was friends for a long time”.
Documents filed for a trial in July over Lauryn’s demands for increased child support quickly became famous: her wishes included £32,000 to cover part of the garden of the £2.4m house Kyle had bought her in Sussex with artificial grass to encourage their daughter’s footballing prowess. The unimpressed judge denied Lauryn the £350,000 a year she had requested.
One might imagine that, with the judicial process concluded, hostilities between the two parties would cease.
However, that hasn’t been the case. Lauryn, who makes her living as an influencer, continues to post on social media, much of it about her children. This summer, her output has also included a significant amount of posts about Kyle and his wife Annie’s alleged shortcomings.
Annie, Lauryn says, has posted about “so many falsehoods” when writing about the court case. When asked if Annie was an innocent party, Lauryn wrote: “I really don’t think she is.” She has quoted followers who have called her former lover “a shameless man.”
And during maintenance hearings in July, it was revealed that Lauryn, who lived in a multi-million-pound home Walker bought for her in Sussex, had befriended a neighbour of Kyle and Annie’s in Cheshire and texted her asking her to film the couple in the garden on her mobile phone. One text was read out saying: “Wait for them to argue. Get some letters together. Finish them.”
Lauryn’s comments are 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 harassment suit against her, and there was a high-level meeting between their advisers to that end last month.
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 calm down without taking any action.
Meanwhile, Lauryn has a habit of hinting at the possibility that there is “proof” of Kyle’s wrongdoing. Some deplore the extent to which she shares details of her children’s lives online. This recently extended to a video in which her son Kairo seemingly hugs a photo of his absent father.
Some believe Lauryn’s ultimate goal is to cause enough upset to break up Kyle and Annie for good.
But I’m told Annie wasn’t the least bit upset by the posting of photos last month showing Kyle in the park playing with Kairo, as she already knew he’d met the boy in September last year.
However, what was most interesting to Annie was seeing that Kyle was clearly wearing his wedding ring during the meeting.
For now, Lauryn remains in the public spotlight through Celebrities Go Dating. Judging by the reaction on the show’s Facebook page, Lauryn is very unpopular with some viewers. So far, the show has led to some awkward on-screen situations, as potential lovers seem to be uninterested in her.
Meanwhile, the online comments about her have been cruel. Surely this can’t be the future that Lauryn, who sometimes appears vulnerable, was hoping for. On screen, she has cried and said she finds it “really hard” and “really awkward” to try to start over as a single mother. But really, considering everything that’s already happened, how else could this end?