Kyle Walker’s wife Annie Kilner has filed for divorce, leaving the England footballer “stunned”, according to a new report.
Last week, it was alleged that Kilner had “met with lawyers” to start legal proceedings to end their marriage after issuing him a £15 million ultimatum.
The 31-year-old, who married Walker in 2021, is said to have made the costly demand following his affair with influencer Lauryn Goodman.
The Manchester City player, who shares four children with Kilner, secretly fathered two children with Goodman.And now it is believed that Kilner has instructed lawyers to start legal proceedings, seeking half of the 34-year-old defender's £27 million fortune.
A source has told The Sun: "Kyle was stunned when he got the papers.
“He's spoken to Annie about them and they are discussing the next steps. This doesn't necessarily mean they will divorce.
‘”This is as much Annie flexing her muscles as it is anything else. She wants Kyle to know she's not messing about. But if this is a bluff, it may well back-fire.”
Meanwhile, MailOnline has alleged Walker received the divorce papers 10 days ago, but he has since moved back into the family home and is sleeping separately from Kilner in a room on the third floor.
An insider told the outlet: “Things are as bad between them as they have ever been. It wasn't like a normal marriage. They have barely been speaking to each other.
“She is divorcing Kyle because she just can't forgive him for what he's done to her. She can't get over it. She has tried.
“Kyle seems to have accepted it's over. He's been happier in the last week or so. Like the weight of the world's been lifted from his shoulders.”
The Standard has contacted Annie Kilner and Kyle Walker’s rep for comment.
Previously, sources claimed that the mother-of-four had quietly begun exploring the possibility of divorce, though no final decision has been made yet.
The couple have spent the past year trying to repair their troubled relationship. The pair, who met when Kyle was 18 and playing for Sheffield United, and Annie was just 16, share four children aged 11, seven, five, and five months.
Walker also has two children from his affair with Goodman aged 13 months and four
Recently, Kilner has faced accusations that she "married Walker for financial gain" after his repeated infidelities. The Sun alleged that she has been "planning her exit" from the relationship since 2019, following his alleged affair with reality TV star Laura Brown and his ongoing scandal with Goodman.
The reports comes a month after Goodman said that she had “no regrets” over their affair earlier this month.
In July, the former flames were embroiled in a highly publicised child maintenance court showdown over their two children.
The football player accused Goodman of displaying “insatiable greed” after a judge ruled in his favour.
Appearing on This Morning in her first TV interview since the court case, Goodman admitted that she currently has no relationship with Walker, but wouldn’t wish to change what had happened between them.
She explained: “I can't say I have any regrets because my children are my world. They wouldn't be here, they wouldn't be the way they are...”
Drawn on her relationship with Walker - who has four sons with estranged wife Annie Kilner - Goodman replied: “Currently there is no relationship and everything is dealt with through the lawyers, but yeah.”
She added: “It's really, really difficult because obviously Kairo asks a lot about his dad and he formed that bond with him. So, it's just trying to navigate that I think as best you can, because obviously everyone's situations are different, and everyone has unique circumstances, but as long as I kind of put them first, then I feel as if my consciousness is clear with that.”
Goodman continued: “It’s not where I wanted it to go at all, I thought that maybe we'd be dealing with it in private, but it didn't go that way. In the future, obviously, I hope that we can be amicable for our two children, because obviously they should come first.
“You know, they are beautiful children. It has just been really, really hard to navigate, but I just have to do my best I can for them. I kind of live in this kind of closed off bubble with them. You know, they're kind of my safe space so we just try to not listen to outside noise.”
