‘Furious’ Lauryn Goodman went on the ATTACK after love-rat Kyle Walker failed to provide their kids Christmas presents. Now mates inform ALISON BOSHOFF the REAL purpose he did not – and why they worry Lauryn will ‘by no means transfer on’

There was a battle over astroturf, a skirmish about a car for the nanny, accusations over a doorbell – and now, perhaps inevitably, there is a row about Christmas gifts.

Or to be more precise, the lack of.

Sometime influencer Lauryn Goodman – who this summer told a court she had substantial debts and just £10,000 in funds – appears to be on the attack because her former lover, married footballer Kyle Walker, has this year failed to send gifts or a card to the two children they have together.

‘To leave them with nothing to open for another year is just really sad,’ an insider told another newspaper. ‘All of their mutual friends have talked to Kyle. They feel really upset for the children and for Lauryn who is always trying to do right by their kids. They were hoping Kyle would put aside his differences for the sake of the children.’

He sent nothing last year either. In fact I understand he has only once given son Kairo a gift, and that was a coat suggested by Lauryn a long time ago.

As for ‘trying to do right’ by the kids, we shall see that the explanation from Kyle’s side is that he is doing just that by staying away.

For now, the media war rages. Lauryn, wearing apparently brand new £1,340 Louis Vuitton boots, stepped out on Monday with Kairo, four, and Kinara, 18 months, and the three just happened to be caught by a passing photographer.

Some time earlier she had posted an exchange with a ‘fan’ on Instagram which ran: ‘Did “that” even attempt to buy the kids [a present] for Christmas or even a card or does the ball and chain [Kyle Walker’s wife Annie] not allow…’. She replied: ‘You said it.’

From this you may gather that tempers continue to run high between the former lovers.

To briefly recap the scandal: Kyle, 34, fathered Kairo with Lauryn, 33, in 2020, despite already having three children with childhood sweetheart Annie Kilner, also 33. In 2021, he and Annie married – yet the affair with Lauryn apparently continued, at least briefly, and in August 2023, his second child with her, Kinara, was born.

Meanwhile his fourth child with Annie, baby Rezon, was born in 2024.

Annie was made aware of the paternity of Kinara via a brutal text from Lauryn on December 27th 2023: ‘Hey it’s Lauryn. I just wanted to quickly tell you that Kyle is the father of our daughter.’ Annie was pregnant at the time.

Lauryn is said to be ‘utterly furious’ about Christmas, about her level of contact with Kyle, about being labelled a gold-digger by the judge who determined her maintenance in the summer, and about the way she is portrayed in the Press. She has already hired and fired a PR.

She is also said to be baffled because, despite of what’s emerged about Kyle’s affair, he remains married to Annie.

That marriage remains on shaky ground – but the divorce which Annie filed for over the summer remains on hold, according to sources, while they try to see if they can move past all that has happened. The fact is, Kyle and Annie are living together – she let him come back in September – and they spent Christmas together.

‘He spent Christmas with his family and he is living at home there with them,’ says a well-placed friend. ‘He and Annie are not OK, of course, because of what has gone on, but he is living there.’

Indeed, it’s been suggested they might end up having a ‘financial divorce’, in which they carve up assets and determine maintenance but continue to live together and try and rebuild their relationship.

You may wonder why Kyle won’t extend some kind of olive branch to Lauryn, who has rehearsed her hurt feelings in TV and newspaper interviews, on Celebs Go Dating and on her eight-part podcast. 

She felt particularly hard done by after a court hearing to determine maintenance for Kinara in July. Although she came out of it with £12,500 a month, plus the £2.4 million house in Sussex bought for her and the children to live in, she was wounded by the judge’s remark that she had been treating the footballer, worth £27 million, like an ‘open ended chequebook’. 

It was during this hearing that a list of Lauryn’s demands of Kyle emerged, including the installation of a £32,000 astroturf pitch at the Sussex house and a new £30,000 car for the nanny.

The judge also said that Lauryn, who it was heard had been prosecuted previously for benefit fraud, was ‘often difficult, unreasonable and demanding’.

In a statement after the judgement, a spokeswoman for Kyle said: ‘This judgement speaks for itself in laying bare Lauryn Goodman’s insatiable greed and relentless pursuit of money. 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.’

Those feelings – of betrayal and media manipulation – have not gone anywhere. I’m told by a source that Kyle feels the Christmas ‘Grinch’ stories are just another instance of Lauryn being publicity-hungry and attacking him.

‘It feels like Lauryn is relentless in dragging this story into the spotlight,’ said a source. ‘There was even a story about her doorbell not working last month.

‘She seems to be trying to use Kyle and the family to keep herself relevant. Kyle and Annie would love for things to die down.

‘He feels that he cannot send gifts or Christmas wishes because he fears Lauryn will use any contact at all to shove herself forward in the media. 

‘Kyle’s children are kept out the media spotlight for their own privacy, he doesn’t want them dragged into it.

‘He wants to protect his family, Annie and his children. Kyle does not want to be the hook that thrusts the children with Lauryn into the media either. And he wants to protect his relationship with Annie.’

The source added: ‘He has never sent them Christmas or birthday presents. He did see Kairo a bit, but that was when he was trying to appease Lauryn in the hope that she wouldn’t go public about Kinara. He hasn’t seen him in a year.

‘He is not in touch with Lauryn. She would like to be in touch with him. If there is a problem with the property, then there is a property manager who she deals with. She has to deal with his lawyer if there is anything to do with the children or family matters.

‘There have been a series of firewalls put in place to try and protect Kyle from the contact and the pressure so that he can move forward peacefully. But it feels as if Lauryn never will move on, she keeps on trying to make contact.’

There are no signs of things improving for the footballer in 2025. Lauryn is pursuing opportunities as a ‘mummy blogger’ and was reportedly disappointed not to have been asked to take part in more reality TV shows after Celebs Go Dating.

A source said: ‘Kyle has no intention of stopping Lauryn from pursuing a career in the media if that is what she wishes to do. But he doesn’t want to be involved in it, nor have his name used to promote her endeavours.’

That seems a faint hope. Kyle has clearly been a fool – and worse – for cheating on his wife.

In an interview a few days after the paternity scandal erupted, he said: ‘What I’ve done is horrible and I take full responsibility.’

But it seems his purgatory is to continue. As was revealed during the court hearing, Lauryn previously befriended the Kyle’s neighbour and asked her to record them arguing, telling her: ‘Ready to finish them.’

I’m told: ‘There has been an element which has seemed a bit Fatal Attraction and it’s not entertainment to the Walkers. This is their family life and it’s extremely important to them.’