If ever anyone needed a shoulder to cry on it was Lauryn Goodman after she realised that the jaw-dropping details of her humiliating courtroom showdown were to be made public.
For months, she had been confident that the colourful list of financial demands she’d made of her former lover, the Premier League footballer Kyle Walker, would remain legally confidential.
But when it became clear that the details of Ms Goodman’s extraordinary requirements – including a seven-bedroom mansion, a £28-per-hour gardener and a car worth up to £70,000 every three years – would be published around the world, the 33-year-old influencer knew exactly where to turn.
Lauryn Goodman’s extraordinary financial requirements included a seven-bedroom mansion, a £28-per-hour gardener and a car worth up to £70,000 every three years
Ms Goodman, Kyle Walker’s former mistress, is the mother of two of his children
Rebekah Vardy, a fellow WAG, suffered an embarrassing defeat at the High Court two years ago when she sued Coleen Rooney for libel
Step forward Rebekah Vardy, the fellow WAG who had suffered an even more embarrassing defeat at the High Court two years ago when she sued Coleen Rooney for libel.
The so-called ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial gripped the nation – and turned Ms Vardy into a laughing stock.
Now, the Mail can reveal that Ms Vardy and Ms Goodman – Walker’s former mistress and mother of two of his children – have become so close that Ms Vardy is reportedly advising her on how to write social media posts in the wake of the case.
The women have also been talking on a daily basis and Ms Vardy, a mother of five, has been supporting Ms Goodman, who is bringing up two young children as a single mum. (Ms Vardy had herself been a single mother before she met Leicester City and England striker Jamie in 2014.)
She has also introduced Ms Goodman to her publicist, who is known to have good tabloid connections.
A friend of Ms Goodman’s tells me: ‘There is the most fascinating friendship behind the scenes, Lauryn and Becky have so much in common.
‘Becky has been advising Lauryn, introducing her to people who she has worked with, guiding her over what to post online and how to behave in public. Becky has also been supporting her as she brings up her children alone. She knows exactly what that is like.
‘Lauryn has been glad of the advice, of course, and there haven’t been many people rushing to support her so it was appreciated.’
Last weekend, Ms Vardy left a supportive post on Ms Goodman’s Instagram account, writing: ‘Keep fighting as I know you always will. Truth will prevail.’
Ms Goodman’s full list of demands from Walker, 34, was laid bare at the end of last month after reporting restrictions were lifted following an application to the courts by newspapers including the Mail.
It emerged that she wanted Walker to pay maintenance worth the equivalent of a £350,000 annual salary and provide £31,000 for an Astro Turf lawn because she believes her one-year-old daughter – who is not yet walking – will one day become a ‘Lioness’, a star of the England women’s football team.
She asked for a £70,000 Mercedes and another £30,000 car for her nanny, even though the nanny couldn’t drive.
The so-called ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial gripped the nation and turned Ms Vardy, pictured, into a laughing stock
Ms Goodman argued that she needed £500 a month to maintain a hot tub solely for the children’s use, another £500 a month for a gardener and £1,440 a month for a cleaner.
Those close to Ms Goodman fear that it will take some time for her to recover from the humiliation of being told by Judge Edward Hess that she was treating Walker, who earns £160,000 a week playing for Manchester City, like an ‘open-ended chequebook’ since giving birth to his two children, Kairo, four, and one-year-old Kinara.
Friends say she is quieter since the case and less keen for attention – and ‘very, very down’.
One says: ‘Lauryn has always been very forthright, very sure that she is in the right but this has hit her like a ton of bricks. She was deeply worried about the scathing public reaction. It all feels very unfair to her.’
Ms Vardy had a similar experience after her own court battle, in which the judge described her as an ‘untrustworthy witness’.
She was ordered to pay more than £2million in legal costs after the nine-day hearing, including £1.5million towards Ms Rooney’s costs.
The scandal kicked off when Ms Rooney accused Ms Vardy of leaking stories to The Sun newspaper in October 2019.
Footballer Kyle Walker with his wife, Annie Kilner. Walker earns £160,000 a week playing for Manchester City
Ms Vardy had herself been a single mother before she met Leicester City and England striker Jamie in 2014
Rebekah Vardy, left, with Annie Kilner, Kyle Walker’s wife, during the World Cup 2018
Ms Rooney, wife of former Manchester United and England striker Wayne, announced on social media that the Instagram account leaking the posts from her private Instagram ‘was Rebekah Vardy’s account’ after she turned sleuth to catch her out.
The following year, Ms Vardy sued Ms Rooney for libel and the case came to trial in London in May 2022. Two months later, the judge dismissed the claim on the basis that Ms Rooney’s statements had been substantially true.
Ms Vardy was said to have been ‘devastated and horrified’ at the outcome.
She has since appeared in a documentary about the case in which she spoke about her difficult upbringing with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Otherwise, she has stayed largely away from the limelight.
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Close observers of the situation say that while Ms Vardy has befriended Ms Goodman, her former antagonist Ms Rooney has supported Kyle Walker’s wife Annie Kilner, ever since last December’s explosive news that Walker had fathered a second child with Lauryn.
The Walkers have also employed the legal and PR teams that helped Ms Rooney win her fight with Ms Vardy, including lawyer Paul Lunt of Liverpool-based Brabners and public relations expert Rachel Monk.
Ms Goodman, meanwhile, has hired Rebekah’s PR man, Ian Edmondson, a former news editor at The News of the World, who left the newspaper amid its phone-hacking scandal.
Ms Goodman is also friendly with Caroline Watt, Ms Vardy’s former agent whose phone – and various messages on it – famously went missing from a boat in the North Sea.
There are further parallels, as both women have lavish tastes.
Lauryn lives in a spacious home with a Hydropool hot tub while Ms Vardy and her husband Jamie live in a sprawling £3million farmhouse in Lincolnshire, with a bar, a gym, a football pitch and a specialist rainbow-coloured play-park, with a slide, swings and a climbing frame.
Lauryn drives a top-of-the-range Mercedes, while Rebekah has a customised Range Rover.
As one of Lauryn’s friends put it: ‘At least they have plenty to talk about.’
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