AMANDA PLATELL: I'm Ashamed of What I Said About Lauryn Goodman - The Heartbreaking Story of a Father's Broken Promises
Last Saturday, I wrote a scathing article criticizing Lauryn Goodman, the former mistress of footballer Kyle Walker, for taking their four-year-old son Kairo to watch England play Denmark in the Euros. I accused her of being cruel and of trying to humiliate Walker's wife, Annie. But after reading Lauryn's own account, I realized how wrong I was and how I had misjudged this complex and heartbreaking situation.
Lauryn explained that during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when she was secretly pregnant with Kyle's second child, he had promised Kairo via FaceTime that he would make sure his son was in the stands the next time he played in a major tournament. Sadly, Kyle never kept that promise. Little Kairo had to resign himself to the fact that his only chance of seeing his dad play live would be through the football cards in his Euros sticker book.
But Lauryn was determined to fulfill Kyle's pledge to their son. She took Kairo to the game in Frankfurt, along with her grandfather, and sat on the opposite side of the stadium from Annie and her three sons, who were wearing matching shirts with Kyle's number and the word "Daddy" on them. Lauryn insists this wasn't an act of spite, but rather to avoid confusing Kairo when his dad ran to embrace Annie's sons after the game, and not him.
As the match unfolded, Kairo excitedly cheered on his father, shouting "Yes Daddy... Brilliant shot, Daddy... My Daddy is in the right corner." But Lauryn had the foresight to take him out of the stadium five minutes before the end, not wanting to ruin "his perfect day" by making him witness his father with another family.
It's a heartbreaking situation. Lauryn has been accused by many, including myself, of not helping but hurting her son by publicly exposing his father's infidelity. There is some truth to that, given Lauryn's high-profile as an influencer and model. But the real question is whether this was the act of a vengeful former mistress or a loving single mother trying to fulfill the dreams of her young son.
Lauryn claims that Annie, Kyle's betrayed wife, had set conditions for mending their marriage, one of which was that Kyle have no contact with Kairo or his ten-month-old daughter with Lauryn, who is barely older than Annie and Kyle's new baby son, Rezon. For Kyle to agree to such terms, if indeed he did, is not just cruel but cowardly. What kind of father can betray his own flesh and blood in this way?
And Annie too must bear some responsibility. However much it pains her, what mother can insist her husband no longer has contact with his children, even if they are born outside of their marriage?
Let's not forget that when Lauryn fell pregnant with Kairo, she and Kyle were on a break, and he had been thrown out of the family home after numerous allegations about his insatiable sexual appetite. Lauryn claims that back then, she wasn't Kyle's mistress but his girlfriend, in what she believed to be a loving, meaningful relationship.
Yes, during the brief second fling that led to Lauryn's second pregnancy, she was the mistress and he a married man - and there's no excusing either of them for that behavior. Yet how heartbreaking for Lauryn to hear the man she loved later dismiss what they had as nothing but a moment of madness, as he tried to salvage things with his wife.
Rubbing salt into the wound, he said: "There was no relationship, would she even know how many sugars I have in my coffee, if I have sugar?" This comment reveals the Neanderthal mindset and narcissism that is all too common among elite footballers like Kyle.
At the heart of this psychodrama is just a small lad desperate for his father's acknowledgment and love. How sad for Kairo if Annie upholds her alleged ban on contact, leaving him estranged from his father. How awful for Annie's kids too - it won't be long before her eldest, Roman, now 11, finds out about the antics of his faithless father and the half-siblings he never knew about through social media and the schoolyard.
Not Lauryn, not Annie, but Kyle is the real monster here. He should take the blame for his cruelty towards them and the kids. They will all suffer the aftermath of his weakness, his betrayal, and his abandonment. And if in years to come he tries to reconcile with them when he's a washed-up nobody, having caused so much hurt, good luck to him.
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