Carefully lifting his little boy on to a slide during a family trip to the park, Kyle Walker looks every inch the doting dad.
Gripping the toddler’s arms, the England footballer supports him as he makes his descent before chasing him round the grass.
In other touching scenes, the Manchester City star pulls his little boy on to his lap for a cuddle. And, dressed in a navy jacket and a baseball cap, the 34-year-old is pictured throwing his little boy into the air.
However these pictures won’t be cooed at by everyone.
For Walker’s wife Annie Kilner, with whom he has four children, was probably unaware this meet-up last September was even taking place.
The curly-haired, three-year-old boy in these pictures is Walker’s son Kairo, his child with influencer Lauryn Goodman. At the time of this trip, Ms Kilner – along with the rest of the world – was still oblivious to the fact that Walker had fathered a second baby with Ms Goodman: Kinara.
Their afternoon at the park in Hale, Cheshire – which friends of Ms Goodman said was the ‘perfect’ day – marked the first time Walker had met his then three-month-old daughter in person.
During the week-long trip, Walker and Kairo’s bond was clear as they visited the Tumble Jacks soft-play centre in Stockport and Wheelock Hall Farm, near Sandbach.
As the two of them played, little Kinara was out of shot sleeping in a £1,500 Egg2 buggy.
Kyle Waker supports the toddler as he makes his descent on the slide
Dressed in a navy jacket and a baseball cap, the 34-year-old is pictured throwing his little boy into the air
Ms Goodman, 33, and her two children were staying in an Airbnb in Cheshire at the time, so, say friends ‘they could enjoy some family time’.
At the lavish rented property, they watched movies together with Walker introducing Kairo to the 1988 dinosaur cartoon, The Land Before Time, which he ‘loved’.
The innocent family pictures are bittersweet for all involved in the long-running saga which began shortly after Christmas when Ms Goodman told Walker’s wife that he was the father of her baby daughter.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it proved one humiliation too much for Ms Kilner – the woman Walker describes as his ‘soulmate’ since they started dating as teenagers growing up in Sheffield.
She threw him out of the family’s Cheshire home shortly afterwards, and he moved into a nearby apartment.
The bombshell revelation also spelled the end of Walker’s relationship with Kairo and Kinara.
Since then, little Kairo, now four, has had to make do with watching his daddy’s matches on TV.
The closest father and son had been was at the Euros in June, when Ms Goodman took their son to Germany for the England versus Denmark match, where he cheered him on from the stands.
No wonder Ms Goodman looks back on that last trip together fondly. ‘It was an idyllic time which they will all hold dear,’ said a source.
Lauryn Goodman, 33, with their two children
‘Lauryn wanted to give Kyle a chance to have a relationship with the children and to be a part of their lives. It was so nice for them to have that bond with their dad as every child deserves that.
‘It is heartbreaking for the children that they don’t see their dad any more. The whole thing is just so very sad – none of this is their fault.’
Since then Walker has not seen his children with Ms Goodman, insisting that he has no relationship with them as he fights to save his marriage
Matters came to a head in July when the pair clashed at the Central Family Court in London, to hammer out a financial settlement for her and the children.
The curly-haired, three-year-old boy in these pictures is Walker’s son Kairo, his child with influencer Lauryn Goodman
The experience was particularly bruising for Ms Goodman, whose outrageous demands – including a £33,000 air conditioning unit and a £31,000 Astro Turf football pitch for the £2.4million home Walker had already purchased for them in Sussex – were revealed for the first time.
Judge Edward Hess called Ms Goodman out for ‘spending money as if it was going out of fashion’ and treating the footballer as an ‘open-ended cheque book’.
While some say that Ms Kilner, 31, won’t allow Walker to see Kairo and Kinara, sources close to the Manchester City defender say that he would like to see them but it’s Ms Goodman who makes it difficult.
The Manchester City star pulls his little boy on to his lap for a cuddle
One friend said: ‘Who can blame Annie for not wanting Kyle to see the kids? It is utterly devastating for her to have to go through this. After all, she hasn’t done anything wrong, she didn’t ask for any of this.’
The one thing no one disputes, however, is that it’s an unbearably sad situation, which doesn’t show any sign of being resolved soon. One friend said: ‘Who knows if Kyle will ever be in Kairo and Kinara’s lives going forward, but at least they were able to make these memories.’