While every second of the jaw-dropping Wagatha Christie trial was played out in front of the world’s media, another WAG war just as ferocious has been raging behind closed doors.
Secretly winding through the courts under strict confidentiality orders, the case reached its crescendo two weeks ago, just a stone’s throw from where Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy did battle.
While the world’s media eagerly feasted on every detail of that particular case -leaving few able to look a chipolata sausage in quite the same way ever again – details of this legal drama have, until now, been strictly under wraps.
It involved England footballer Kyle Walker who, for the last four years, has been embroiled in an extraordinary legal fight over maintenance support to the children he fathered with influencer Lauryn Goodman.
In January it emerged that Walker, 34, who is married with four children, had fathered a daughter with Goodman, 33, four years after they had a son together.
His wife, Annie Kilner, 32, booted him out of their £3.5million marital mansion in Cheshire, and he rented a £20,000 per month property nearby as he fought for his marriage.
Kyle Walker and his wife Annie Kilner, pictured together in Manchester in February 2019
Lauryn Goodman takes her son Kairo to watch his father Kyle Walker at England v Denmark in Frankfurt on June 20. He was wearing a number 2 England shirt with ‘Daddy’ on the back
Kyle Walker agree to buy Lauren Goodman a £2.4million Sussex property (pictured) and spend over £120,000 on walk-in wardrobes, blinds and curtains, sofas and garden furniture
Lauryn Goodman hid under a coat as she arrived at Holborn Family Court in London on July 16
England footballer Kyle Walker is pictured outside at Holborn Family Court on July 16
Since then, both Walker and Goodman have given their own ‘tell-all’ interviews to various newspapers, but strenuous court orders have meant the central plot to this lurid drama, and the staggering amounts of money involved, have remained a secret, until today.
A highly unusual ruling this week, following legal submissions – including those made by the Mail – saw reporting restrictions lifted, meaning we can lay bare the eye-popping details of most vitriolic legal spat since Rebekah Vardy unsuccessfully sued Coleen Rooney for naming her as a social media ‘mole’ who’d been leaking private information about her to newspapers.
In the searing judgment, Walker, who earns a reported £160,000 a week, and is known – off the pitch – as a bit of a rogue with a roving eye, emerged with his character reupholstered as he was described as ‘grounded and reasonable’ by Judge Edward Hess.
His former lover, meanwhile – who, it was revealed in court, was once prosecuted for benefit fraud and who has only £10,000 assets to her name – was lambasted as a spendthrift who was ‘spending money as if it was going out of fashion’ and treated Walker like ‘an open-ended cheque book’.
It was Walker himself who summed up the situation: ‘If I was a painter and decorator I know this wouldn’t have gone this far,’ he said.
Over two days of drama, the High Court heard how Goodman:
- Strong-armed Walker into buying her a £2.4million mansion, before demanding maintenance payments worth the equivalent of a £350,000 salary.
- Tried to force him to face her in court within 12 hours of the final whistle blowing at the Euros final in Berlin, meaning he wouldn’t have been able to celebrate or commiserate with team mates.
- Argued she needed a £31,000 astro turf lawn laying because she believes her one-year-old daughter – who is still crawling – is going to become a ‘Lioness’, an England women’s football star.
- Asked Walker’s neighbour to spy on him and Annie over her garden fence, to gather information about their marriage, saying she was ‘ready to finish them’.
- Demanded a £70,000 Mercedes and another £30,000 car for her nanny – who couldn’t even drive.
- Argued she needed £500 a month to maintain a hot tub solely for the children’s use, another £500 a month for a gardener a £1,440 a month for a cleaner.
The final two-day court showdown, just 48 hours after England’s devastating Euro’s defeat to Spain, saw the Manchester City defender going back on the attack.
Dressed in sharp black suit and, notably, still wearing his wedding ring, he refused to make eye contact with his former mistress as she stared at him from the witness box.
She’d arrived at court somewhat chaotically, covering her face with coats and shouting at photographers not to take her picture.
As for Walker’s long-suffering wife Annie, she was nowhere to be seen. Those who know her say she’d welcomed the court day of reckoning, but transporting four children back from Germany the day before made it impossible to attend.
There were moments of comedy during the case. In his still broad Sheffield accent, Walker 34, referenced Goodman wanting to spend £16,000, meant for furniture for the children’s rooms, on two bespoke white leather sofas.
‘I don’t think that’s child friendly,’ he quipped.
He also ripped into her spending habits, at one point bluntly asking her barrister, Nichola Gray KC: ‘Ms Gray, how many people would you like me to pay for? Does she want a chef?’
Annie Kilner at the Olympiastadion in Berlin for England v Spain Euro 2024 final on July 14
Lauryn Goodman posted a picture of her children cheering on Kyle Walker in the Euro 2024 quarter-final between England and Switzerland on July 6, with shirts saying ‘Daddy’
Goodman said the glass staircase also meant she needed a ‘bespoke glass and wood babygate’ (such as the one pictured above) because ‘the standard gates don’t fit’
Goodman asked for £70,000 towards a new Mercedes GLE (such as the one pictured) every three years
But there were tears too, as Goodman took to the witness box to describe her pain on reading Walker’s interview with The Sun earlier this year, in which he described their affair as a mistake.
Walker’s steely demeanour did not crack, as he shook his head dismissively and refused to meet her gaze.
Goodman fought to keep details of the court hearing secret, with her lawyers arguing their children deserved privacy.
But Judge Hess said she has ‘actively instigated press coverage’ of her own son and daughter – travelling to the Euros with their son in an England shirt with ‘Daddy’ on the back, as well as publicly detailing her feud with their father – so could not now plead privacy for her children.
‘If the children suffer any harm from the publicity of these matters, it has already happened, and it will largely be the result of the mother’s own decisions and actions,’ he ruled.
With the details now out in the open, Walker must hope this draws to a close the scandal that has loomed over the twilight years of his career – and cost him millions.
Walker had been with his childhood sweetheart Kilner since they were teenagers at school
It began in 2020 when Goodman had her first child, Kairo, and publicly named Walker as the father.
His childhood sweetheart Annie, who he’s been with since they were teenagers at school, furiously threw him out of the family home.
A financial application for Kairo ‘painfully and expensively’ went through court over two years. Walker was ordered to buy Goodman a £1.85million home, though within a 60-mile radius of a Sussex town to prevent her being near his family, and to pay £8,000 per month child support.
The footballer also paid over £600,000 picking up both sides’ legal costs, cleared £40,000 of her debts and put over £100,000 in total towards a nanny, furniture and a car.
Walker cut contact with his ex-mistress and moved back in with Annie, with whom he has four sons: Roman, 11, Riaan, seven, and Reign, five, and Rezon, three months.
This was a ‘source of disappointment, anguish and anger’ for Goodman, who threatened to move near his family’s Cheshire pile – which would breach the order – and made enquiries with nearby estate agents.
Kyle Walker with wife Annie Kilner and family after England v Denmark in Frankfurt on June 20
In August 2022, she also made contact with the footballer’s neighbour and asked her to covertly record Walker and his wife in the garden.
‘Wait until they argue,’ Goodman messaged, adding: ‘Ready to finish them.’
That same month, the influencer saw Walker at his solicitor’s office and, remarkably, contact between the two was resumed.
Then, after travelling to London for groin surgery that October, they met once again and nine months later their second child, a girl, was born.
Within 48 hours of giving birth, Goodman made a ‘financial remedies application’ asking for maintenance, already at £110,000 per year for their son, to be increased to £177,000.
Knowing Walker wanted to keep their daughter’s birth secret, she made demands while ‘hinting that she would go public’.
Walker’s wife Kilner booted the footballer out of their £3.5million marital mansion in Cheshire
It saw the England Vice Captain agree to buy her a £2.4million Sussex property and spend over £120,000 on walk-in wardrobes, blinds and curtains, sofas and garden furniture.
This, however, was seemingly not enough to buy Goodman’s silence who, the judge said, ‘plainly had no intention of keeping the matter secret’.
In the days leading up to Christmas last year she all but outed Walker in a series of posts, including a picture of the daughter on Instagram with the caption: ‘I’m a lion’.
Then, knowing Annie – then pregnant with her fourth child – was home alone while her husband was playing football on December 27, messaged revealing the secret.
‘Hey it’s Lauryn I just wanted to quickly tell you that Kyle is the father of our daughter,’ she wrote.
Goodman claimed in court that she texted Ms Kilner ‘to sort things out so all the boys could have a relationship’ and ‘to calm things down’.
Kyle Walker with his wife Annie Kilner and children after his Manchester City team won the FIFA Club World Cup final against Brazil’s Fluminense in Jeddah on December 22, 2023
But Judge Hess said he did not accept this was ‘an attempt to create a good working relationship between the two women’.
‘This was intended to, and did, cause distress to the father’s wife,’ he said.
After that message, all hell broke loose. Walker was booted from the family home once more.
He responded with a mea culpa interview weeks later, while his ex-mistress repeatedly raged online and uploaded photos of their two children.
Unknown to fans, their last court showdown on the financial remedy for their daughter was scheduled for 10am on the Monday morning after the Berlin final.
Walker’s legal team had asked to adjourn the case by one day. Goodman’s lawyers objected.
‘He cannot now ask for what is essentially permission to celebrate or commiserate with his teammates,’ they wrote. ‘That is no reason to adjourn a hearing.’
Lauryn Goodman (pictured) publicly named Walker as the father of her first child, Kairo
Judge Hess did not agree. He put the two-day hearing back by 24 hours.
On the second day Goodman turned up sporting a necklace with her children’s initials, ‘KW’.
Her long list of financial demands read like those of a fully-fledged, footballer’s wife – something she never was, and probably never will be, a point not lost on Judge Hess.
‘The evidence suggests that the mother wished the relationship to develop further than it has and the father’s decision not to allow the relationship develop at all and instead to commit himself to his wife has been a source of disappointment, anguish and anger for the mother,’ the judge said in his ruling.
She’d wanted £500 a month to maintain the hot tub, solely for the children’s use. A £70,000 Mercedes GLE – the only car she feels ‘safe’ in – replaced with a new model every three years. A gardener costing £500 a month and a £1,440 monthly cleaner. A nanny costing £67,000, plus £30,000 for her car, which she couldn’t drive yet.
He’d even funded her £8,000 holiday to Mexico last year.
‘I want a lot of things in life, but sometimes I just don’t get them,’ said Walker from the witness box, perhaps with his Euro’s loss in Berlin still on his mind.
On the matter of the nanny – plus her driving lessons – Walker was asked what Goodman was expected to do, should she need to transport the children around, as part of her duties.
Annie Kilner at the Olympiastadion in Berlin for England v Spain Euro 2024 final on July 14
‘I would probably employ one who can drive,’ he answered.
Much of the case focused on the glassed mansion Walker had bought Goodman, and the long list of safety features and renovations: a £33,000 air conditioning system because the heat becomes ‘unbearable’ in summer.
Walker said there are ‘other solutions’ suggesting his ex mistress ‘can go and get Dyson fans’ instead as he does at his home.
Another issue Goodman had was with her patio, which she said was ‘unsafe’ and wanted a £31,000 astro turf instead. She told the court that her one-year-old daughter needed the pitch as she had managed to kick a football recently so could well become a Lioness.
Judge Hess cut in: ‘For a one-year-old child to kick with her left foot to being a Lioness, that’s quite a leap?’
Goodman, seemingly taking a dig at her ex-lover’s defeat two days previous, responded: ‘Never say never. The Lionesses are better than the Lions anyway.’
Walker’s wife Annie Kilner (pictured) was not present at the court proceedings
Goodman also said she needed a cleaner because the house has a huge glass staircase and giant windows. Nicola Saxton KC, for Walker, reminded her: ‘You chose this house with all its glass.’
The barrister accused her of choosing a ‘designer home’ in an ‘address you coveted’ over a ‘perfectly suitable family home’.
Goodman said the glass staircase also meant she needed a ‘bespoke glass and wood babygate’ because ‘the standard gates don’t fit’ – insisting she had ‘really tried’.
Judge Hess said he didn’t understand the need for bespoke gates.
Kyle Walker with wife Annie Kilner and family after England v Denmark in Frankfurt on June 20
‘I have had a few children in my time,’ he said. ‘You get the standard baby gates and they extend out.’
Judge Hess sided with the footballer on nearly every point of contention saying he found him ‘sensible, honest and reliable’.
After the two day court fight came to a close, Goodman made a hasty getaway as Walker addressed journalists gathered outside: ‘I hope you enjoyed yourselves – I won’t be back here again.’
He must hope so – for his marriage’s sake, and for his bank balance.
Following the case, a spokeswoman for Walker said today: ‘This judgment speaks for itself in laying bare Lauryn Goodman’s insatiable greed and relentless pursuit of money.
Annie Kilner in the crowd at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, watching England v Panama
‘The judge made it clear: she used Kyle as an open ended cheque book and repeatedly threatened him in order to get what she wanted.
‘She then orchestrated a media campaign to feed intolerable and wrongful intrusion into the private lives of Kyle, Annie and their young family.
‘Throughout each court proceeding the judge stated that Kyle adopted a fair and generous stance.
‘These proceedings were never necessary. Kyle’s offer should have been accepted months ago and would therefore have eliminated the need for added stress to all involved.
‘In light of this judgment and the truths it makes public, my client and his family now ask that the media fully respects their rights to a private life as they navigate their next steps.’
Both parties have until August 13 to appeal.
