Inside Kyle Walker's new life at Burnley after marriage drama with Annie Kilner & Lauryn Goodman threatened to ruin Man City legend's career

Walker first started dating Kilner in their hometown of Sheffield when he was 17 and she was 15. Their relationship endured from Walker's first steps as a professional with Sheffield United through his long spell at Tottenham Hotspur, and they had their first child, Roman, in 2011. A second boy, Riaan, arrived in 2016 while a third son, Reign, was born in 2019 while he was at City. But their relationship was rocked by Walker's affairs. 

In April 2020, model and influencer Lauryn Goodman gave birth to his son Kairo. He made more negative headlines that very same month for having a sex party with escorts at the height of the UK's coronavirus lockdown.

Walker smoothed things over with Kilner and the pair married in 2022. But the wedded bliss did not last long as just one year later he had another child with Goodman, his first daughter Kinara. Walker kept the second child a secret from Kilner for four months before admitting to his second act of fidelity in an interview with The Sun in January 2024. 

He said: "What I’ve done is horrible and I take full responsibility. I made idiot choices and idiot decisions. I can’t begin to think or imagine what Annie is going through. I’ve tried to ask her but there’s pain and hurt. There have been days in this ordeal where I’ve just wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep."

Walker would have been excused for letting the affair affect his performances and yet, strangely, the drama barely affected his football. City won four consecutive titles between 2021 and 2024 and arguably his peak displays came while he was digesting the fact his mistress was going to give birth to their second son, during the treble-winning season of 2022-23. 

He fought his way back into the City team in January 2023 after a brief period out of the starting line-up, in which he also endured some less-than-complimentary comments from Pep Guardiola, who questioned his ability to adapt to his new tactical system. Walker produced some of his best ever performances for City in that period as City won the three trophies, routinely locking down his opposing winger. He had Vinicius Jr in his pocket as City thrashed Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the Champions League semi-finals and nullified Marcus Rashford in the FA Cup final against Manchester United. 

It's also worth remembering that Walker wasn't just dealing with the Goodman saga at this time. He faced fresh embarrassment after he was caught on CCTV kissing another woman at a bar and appearing to expose himself. 

Walker had grown so valuable to City that Guardiola convinced him to reject an offer from Bayern Munich and sign a new contract, persuading him with a private dinner at a high-end Japanese restaurant in Manchester. Walker announced he was extending his stay at City with a hilarious Wolf Of Wall Street-style video and was named captain. He maintained his impeccable recovery speed and concentration even after news of his second love child with Goodman came out and Kilner kicked him out of the family home.

Walker skippered City to a historic fourth consecutive English title in May, shortly after Kilner gave birth to their fourth boy, Rezon. He also started every game for England during their run to the Euro 2024 final. He was named in the team of the tournament, despite an error leading to one of Spain's goals in the defeat. And this was while the glare of the media was larger than ever due to Goodman going out to Germany to watch the Euros with her and Kyle's eldest son Kairo.

But things took a turn for the worse later in the year, both on the pitch and off it. Kilner filed for divorce in mid-October 2024. And just two weeks later, the wheels began to fall off City's season. They lost nine out of 12 matches, their worst run of results in 18 years. And Walker took the bulk of the blame. Some of the criticism was warranted. He was embarrassed in the shock 4-0 thrashing at home to Tottenham, being left for dead by Timo Werner for the final goal. 

There were other factors to explain his sharp decline: his 34 years were catching up with him and he had been affected by a knee injury sustained on England duty. His City team were also feeling the inevitable wear and tear of winning an unprecedented number of titles and they had only signed two players that summer.

But Walker felt something else was at play. "I don’t want to say scapegoat because I don’t want to bring out the violins," he told The Telegraph. "But I was the captain and the team wasn’t doing well. There were big players missing in big periods in that season and I felt just like I was getting…not blamed. I won’t say 'blamed' but I felt I was the excuse because I was the captain."

He also felt that he was being asked to give up the captaincy, which he refused to do. He explained: "I’m not going to go into too much detail on those conversations. But I wasn’t prepared to give that up. I’ve got to stand for my rights and I think I earned being the club captain and I thought I did a good job leading the team to the fourth Premier League."

Walker had been chosen as captain by his team-mates following a squad vote although Guardiola hinted this summer during the Club World Cup that he did not agree with their choice. And as if to prove his point, he abolished the vote this season, appointing Bernardo Silva himself. 

"I’m the manager this season, for the first time in my career, I decided it would be my captain," he said. "I didn’t like what happened last season, and I decided this season I will represent the team."

Walker lost his place in the City team to Matheus Nunes and AC Milan offered both an opportunity of first team football and some relief from the prying tabloid media. When Zlatan Ibrahimovic called him, it was an offer he couldn't refuse. But after an unfulfilling spell, which ended with him losing his place to 19-year-old Alex Jimenez and Milan slumping to an embarrassing eighth-placed finish in Serie A, Walker wondered if he had made the right choice.

He told The Telegraph: "I wasn’t playing football and I wanted to go out and play. And when AC Milan came and Zlatan gave me the call, can you turn that opportunity down when you are sat on the bench? Should I have left the team, looking back at it? Probably not. I probably should have stuck by the lads and came through the sticky patch together. 

"But sometimes, selfishly, you look at yourself and you kind of think 'OK, well, let me go and experience something different.'"

Walker lived alone while in Milan and news of him spending the evening with two Serbian models in a luxurious night club in March, looking 'like the cat who got the cream', did not bode well for fixing his marriage. 

But Walker and Kilner have reconciled yet again, holidaying together over the summer in Ibiza and the United States. And he jumped at the opportunity to move back to the north west of England when Burnley came calling. And according to The Sun, he and Kilner are planning to buy another house and have another baby.

Burnley did not just offer him a route back into the Premier League, it was also convenient for his family. His eldest son Roman, soon to turn 14, plays in the Clarets' academy. 

"At this stage of my career, being at a great club [City] for a number of years. I went overseas and tried that out, but I just felt I needed something that was a family club," Walker said upon joining Burnley. 

"I’ve been around the place and my son is training at the training ground and you can feel the aura around there and what the owners are trying to do and I wanted to be a part of that. I want to be a part of the success."

There was another motivation to go to Burnley: linking up with his former Tottenham team-mate Scott Parker. He explained: "I respect people’s hard work and dedication that they put into the game that we all completely love… he called me and I loved everything he said. He brought it back to like when we were team-mates."

And although he is operating at the opposite end of the table now, Burnley see Walker as an experienced asset in their fight to avoid relegation. The Clarets have four points from their five games but were only beaten by Liverpool and Manchester United by stoppage-time goals. 

Walker impressed against the champions and also stood out in the battling draw against Nottingham Forest, earning praise from Parker, who said: "Kyle was every bit of the player that we expected to come in today. A driving force for us. At the end, he was on fumes and there is something in him that he has to push."

How much longer Walker will keep pushing for remains to be seen as he turns 36 at the end of the season. He is approaching the end of a phenomenal career but, as he prepares to face City at the Etihad on Saturday, he is definitely in a much happier place now than when he left.