Irish Daily Mirror

KYLE’S25 IN DOG HOUSE

Footballer claims Lauryn ‘meant nothing’ but she says he treated her ‘like princess’

- BY TOM BRYANT news@irishmirro­r.ie @Mirrortom

DAN BIRD

and

KYLE Walker has insisted that his liaisons with Lauryn Goodman “meant nothing” to him, sparking a new war of words.

The footballer, 33, has split from his pregnant wife of two years, Annie Kilner, 31, after it emerged that he had fathered a daughter with model Lauryn last summer.

A friend of Walker said:

“Kyle is very much in the wrong with his escapades but there was no proper relationsh­ip with

Lauryn. It was effectivel­y just a very, very quick fleeting thing while he was in the area.

“Yes, things happened a few times but there were no feelings, and certainly no romance.”

However, the friend’s comments sparked fury from

Lauryn’s camp, who insisted that they did have a proper relationsh­ip.

“Kyle was very much a willing, enthusiast­ic participan­t,” a friend of Lauryn’s claimed. “He told her all sorts of sweet nothings and treated her like a princess.”

The player and Lauryn already had a son, Kairo, three, born following a brief relationsh­ip when the footballer had split from childhood sweetheart Annie.

FORTUNE

England defender Walker and pregnant Annie, who already has three sons with the star, are now living separately.

Grim-faced Annie stepped out alone on Tuesday cradling a cockapoo pup. The couple were seen together last week with eldest son Roman, 11, in a car park, before Walker went to a glitzy football awards event in London.

He was named in the FIFA Men’s World 11 alongside his Manchester City team-mates Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.

Insiders predict that Annie could take half his estimated €35million fortune should they divorce.

A source said: “It could get very messy indeed but hopefully things can remain civil for the sake of the children. It’s a very delicate situation to say the least.”

Last week, the football star publicly apologised for his infidelity, writing: “Annie is an amazing woman and I can only apologise for the upset I’ve caused her. She’s been part of my life for so long and that will never change for the sake of our children.”

His words came after his estranged wife wrote on Instagram: “Sadly, after many years of marriage and three wonderful children together, I have decided to take some time away from Kyle. I do not wish to comment on the position any further.”

Lauryn claimed last week how Walker was leading a secret double life. And she told how she decided to reveal the truth to Annie so that they could all “live their lives like adults”.

The 32-year-old influencer, who came to fame on reality show The Only Way is Essex, told The Sun: “I kept saying to Kyle, ‘You need to tell her. You need to tell Annie that you are our daughter’s father and you are having a relationsh­ip with your children. “‘We need to start 2024 out in an open way. If everyone knows where they stand they can make their own adult choices in life’. I didn’t want to cause any more heartache for Annie or be a b***h but I had to tell her because Kyle was too weak to do it.

“Kyle was happy hiding the truth because he was having two families and was scared about what would happen when Annie knew.

“But I kept saying to him, ‘Our daughter can’t be a secret, she is a human’. I didn’t want them to split up or cause harm but it had to be out in the open for all of our sakes.

“When I told Annie, she was cool and calm.”

Walker has moved into a flat near the large home he shared with Annie in Prestbury, Cheshire. He earns €210,000 per week playing for City but has also landed lucrative sponsorshi­p deals as the face of Puma and Boohooman.

Kyle is very much in the wrong with his escapades FRIEND OF WALKER

ON ANNIE AND LAURYN

Frank Skinner is in a coffee shop on a bitter January lunchtime trying to choose between a five-cheese toastie or an oat pot “thing” and musing on some of the “terrible” jobs he had before finding his niche in comedy.

Now 66, he is about to go on the road in a stand-up tour, and can’t wait. He loves performing, and has always been a grafter, but rememberin­g grim jobs he had as a young man also keeps him going.

He says: “My dad had a big thing about working hard. When I got a job as a labourer, the other labourers would say to me, ‘Hey, slow down, you’re making us look bad’.

“What has been great for my motivation was doing some terrible jobs.

“I worked in a glass factory, and one thing I had to do was take wheelbarro­ws of broken glass and tip them in a hole in the floor into a skip below, and a cloud of glass dust came up.

“I used to have to drop the wheelbarro­w and run away, but I was still breathing in that glass. You always had blood running off your finger tips.”

He’s as upbeat about comedy now as he was when he started out 40 years ago. In fact, he’s upbeat about most things, including that oat pot he finally decided on. He says: “My partner says I have high serotonin.”

David Baddiel, 59, his old comedy partner, close friend, and now neighbour in North London, is very different. They became mainstream with their Fantasy Football Show in the 90s, peaking with their collaborat­ion with The Lightning Seeds for Three Lions.

Frank says: “When I worked with David I never thought he enjoyed it as much as he should have done.

“When Three Lions happened, I’d sort of shake him and say, ‘Dave, this is absolutely amazing’. And maybe he’s a more laid-back bloke, less excitable than I am. But I always thought it was because Dave finished at Cambridge University, worked for two days in a secondhand bookshop, and then became a profession­al comedian.

“I think having done some horrible jobs is quite good for the soul.”

He relishes the thought of touring with his new show: 30 Years of Dirt. He says: “There is nothing making me do it, to be brutal I don’t need the money, I can live without it. I just really like doing it.

“Retirement has never crossed my mind. My mum and dad both retired at 65 and were both dead by the time they were 70. I think they thought they just worked for money.

“But they worked for all sorts of things – the social side, the structure of it, the satisfacti­on of thinking they’d done a good day’s work, and they were never the same again.

“And

You always used to have blood running off your fingertips FRANK SKINNER COMIC ON GLASS FACTORY JOB

they worked in factories and missed that.

“I have a job where there is no other job would rather do.”

Of course, when he is away he misses partner Cath Mason, son Buzz, 11 – and the dog Poppy, a Cavapoo. He pined so much for Poppy when he did the Edinburgh Festival last year he picked a fluffy rug up from the hotel floor and put it on the sofa as a Poppy substitute.

For the tour this year, Cath has given him a cushion with a photo of Buzz and Poppy on it.

But Frank cannot imagine giving up touring. He says: “There is some

I

 ?? ?? ESTRANGED Pregnant Annie steps out with pup in Cheshire earlier this week
ESTRANGED Pregnant Annie steps out with pup in Cheshire earlier this week
 ?? ?? HONOUR At Palace with MBE last April
STAND-UP At Latitude in 2019
POPPY LOVE Frank and his Cavapoo
CHAT Frank and reporter Emily
HONOUR At Palace with MBE last April STAND-UP At Latitude in 2019 POPPY LOVE Frank and his Cavapoo CHAT Frank and reporter Emily

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland