When Lauryn Goodman signed up to appear on a celebrity dating show, its producers wanted to reveal the real person behind eight months of headlines as one of the most talked-about British women of 2024.
Bosses at Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating, which launched last week, also wanted to hear what Lauryn herself considered her “perfect match” following her disastrous fling with married footballer Kyle Walker.
But it seems anyone hoping to win the affections of Lauryn, who has two children with Walker, will find it difficult to match the £160,000-a-week footballer.
Friends of the 33-year-old influencer say she still stands by him, despite her reputation being savaged in a bitter battle with him in the Central Family Court earlier this summer.
Celebs Go Dating Press, Lauryn (center right) with Helen Flanagan, Chris Taylor, Ella Morgan, Stephen Webb, Tristan Phipps and Jamelia
Lauryn (centre) was offered £15,000 to appear on the reality show but she scoffed at the fee and demanded £80,000.
In fact, Lauryn is said to be having a hard time moving on from Kyle and is actively dreading dating, which will air on the show early next month.
“Lauryn has little interest in finding a boyfriend on Celebs Go Dating,” said a friend. “She thinks so much about Kyle that she’s probably finding it very difficult to even consider another relationship.”
“She was like, ‘Oh no! I have to go meet this guy. He’s nice, but I don’t want to date him. ’”
Friends say they fear she remains “obsessed” with Kyle, who is the father of her four-year-old son Kairo and one-year-old daughter Kinara.
‘Lauryn keeps talking about Kyle all the time. She seems to still have hope for a happy ending with him despite everything that’s happened. She says they share a bond, a trauma bond.
‘Let’s put it this way, if he broke up with Annie and said he was coming over to her house, she would be standing at the window excitedly waiting for him to arrive.’
A case of illusion?
Last Tuesday, Kyle, 34, attended the glamorous PFA night – without Annie, his childhood sweetheart and mother of his four other children.
Dressed in a black suit and £60 Converse trainers, Kyle kept his left hand tucked into his pocket so that it was hidden from view in the photographs, making it impossible to see whether he was wearing his wedding ring or not.
Instead of accompanying her husband, Annie is believed to have decided to travel to Portugal to make the most of the last few days of the summer holidays before her three eldest children returned to school.
However, after the event there was much speculation about the state of the Walker marriage.
Although friends want the couple to get back together, they’re not sure if Kyle’s past bad habits will make that possible.
A source said: “Too much has happened for anyone to find it easy to forgive. You never know, there may be a place for Lauryn in his life one day, although it’s unlikely he’ll want to take her up on her offer.”
Lauryn’s date on the show will air early next month.
Lauryn is said to be struggling to get over her split from Kyle and is actively fearing dating.
The sad sequence of events began in 2019 when, while on vacation with Annie, Kyle got Lauryn pregnant with Kairo. Shortly after, he and Annie got back together and tied the knot in 2022.
But in the winter of 2022, Lauryn became pregnant again with Kyle, and the following summer, their only daughter was born.
On December 27 of last year, she sent Annie a text with a bombshell: “Hi, this is Lauryn. I just wanted to quickly tell you that Kyle is the father of our daughter.”
Annie kicked Walker out of the family home two weeks later.
Kyle later told his side of the story in a newspaper interview, apologizing profusely to his childhood sweetheart, who was pregnant with their fourth child at the time.
He described his relationship with Lauryn as one filled with “stupid decisions” and “mistakes.”
That prompted Lauryn to fire back, saying his words were “unimaginably cruel” toward her children, sparking a very public feud that led to the Walkers hiring a PR person to brief the media after the incident.
Annie supported her husband as he played for England at the European Championships in Germany in June, flying in with their children on a private jet, although Kyle is said to still not have been welcomed back to the family’s £3.5million mansion in Cheshire.
Lauryn also took Kairo to watch his father play in Germany, despite Kyle’s very public statement that he does not have – and likely never will have – any relationship with any of his children by her.
Days after England’s defeat at the European Championships, Lauryn and Kyle faced off in a bitter High Court showdown, where Kairo and Kinara’s child support payments were settled.
Following an unprecedented ruling by a judge, reporting restrictions were lifted, meaning the shocking details and staggering amounts of money involved were laid bare.
These included the Sussex home Walker bought for Lauryn for £2.4m, which also required a £33,000 air conditioning system because he said the house got too hot in summer, and a £31,000 artificial turf pitch for Kinara, who Lauryn told the court was already showing potential as a footballer despite being just a player. Walker had rejected these requests, which Judge Edward Hess also ruled were “neither necessary nor reasonable”.
Lauryn’s demands led to her being criticized for using Walker as an “open checkbook.”
It was also revealed in court that Lauryn was so obsessed with Kyle and Annie’s marriage that she tried to enlist the help of her next-door neighbor to spy on them over the garden fence and record them rowing.
But if everyone – especially the Walkers – thought this would be the last time they would see Lauryn, they were very wrong.
Earlier this year, she had signed up with Celebs Go Dating, an exclusive dating agency for single celebrities looking to find true love. Matchmakers pair them with non-celebrity partners and cameras capture every romantic or embarrassing moment.
Their date is set to air early next month, but it seems her demands caused quite a stir on set.
I can reveal that Lauryn, 33, was offered £15,000 to appear on the reality show alongside the likes of former Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan and pop singer Jamelia.
However, she scoffed at the fee and demanded £80,000 for her services. Bookers refused and came back with an offer of £50,000. Lauryn eventually got her fee raised to £55,000, but demanded to have a driver during filming. However, she relented and used the train at times.
Kyle Walker heads into the Central Family Court battle earlier this summer where Lauryn’s reputation was dragged through the mud.
Walker with Annie, his childhood sweetheart and mother of his four other children: There is now speculation about the state of their marriage.
Friends say they fear Lauryn remains “obsessed” with Kyle, who is the father of her four-year-old son Kairo (pictured) and one-year-old daughter Kinara.
As for her time on the show, other than Helen, who I understand she has become close friends with, she gained few fans.
One contestant tells me: ‘Lauryn didn’t understand how television worked, why she had to be on it all day. She thought she was a star and better than everyone else. It was something to be admired, really. She joined the show halfway through and she just wasn’t a team player.
‘Some people who worked on the show thought Lauryn was a bit of a diva.’
And it seems she and matchmaker Anna Williamson didn’t get along after meeting on the show.
In fact, Anna, a TV presenter and author, was seen “emotional” when she was with Lauryn. At one point she was seen crying on the set.
Anna was then absent from the launch party at members’ club Soho House in London, leading Lauryn’s co-stars to speculate whether this was related to their complicated relationship.
“Anna is very well liked by the contestants,” said a source from the show. “She is a very good, kind person and a real expert in love, but in this series she was more depressed than usual.”
However, a taste for TV fame has given Lauryn more ideas, meaning Kyle may never be able to safely turn on his TV again.
I’m told she has her sights firmly set on the ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and has been asking everyone she knows if they can put her forward or have contact numbers she can call.
So far, ITV bosses are said to be “horrified” at the idea of her appearing on the show.
But let’s not forget Lauryn’s determination to get what she wants.
So be careful Kyle…and Australia!
