ANNIE KILNER has consulted divorce lawyers over wayward husband Kyle Walker.
And I couldn’t be happier for her.
If you are not au fait with Kyle Walker, let me explain.
On the pitch for England and Manchester City, he is an amazing, talented footballer.
Off it, his life is an absolute car crash, which could be turned into a Carry On film.
Since he first got together with Annie, he has romped in a car with Ex On The Beach’s Laura Brown and fathered two children with reality TV star Lauryn Goodman.
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He exposed himself in a bar and snogged another woman.
During Covid he had a party with two sex workers.
And he has been caught twice urinating in the street after a session in the pub — most recently just two weeks ago.
He has run roughshod over his relationship with Annie. And I don’t know how she has held it together.
She always appears to look steely, strong and determined when she is out with their four children — the youngest of whom was born in April — or watching him on the pitch.
But her confidence must have been absolutely crushed over the years. Imagine the anguish and pain she has gone through.
This is a woman who was a normal working-class girl from Sheffield when she fell for local lad Kyle at the age of 16.
He was playing football but he wasn’t the megastar he is now.
She fell in love with him, knowing he could one day play for England or get injured and end up on benefits.
He hit the jackpot in his career — with the salary to go with it — but Annie has been the one to pay the price.
Terrible behaviour
She has tried to deal with it and chucked him out of the house — and taken him back. Multiple times.
She has slated Lauryn, had public spats with her, apologised to her and told friends she wishes Lauryn was dead.
Annie bravely admitted that his terrible behaviour even became “acceptable”.
And some have said that his wealth has cushioned his behaviour while others have slammed her for not leaving before now.
But leaving any man — rich or poor — isn’t easy when you’ve spent half your life with him and have four kids together.
Any woman who has been cheated on knows that it takes a long while to regain your strength afterwards and come out fighting. Now Annie has. She is finally, thankfully, taking control.
She recently sought advice to make sure she could get half of his £150,000-a-week salary and this week she has gone a step further and met with lawyers to discuss legal proceedings to end her marriage.
Strength and courage
I bet those who love her are proud of her.
Annie has shown strength and courage.
She has also given an important message to all those kids who idolise her husband — that there must be consequences for your actions.
This summer, a survey of 1,306 children aged six to 17 across the UK revealed that almost a fifth wanted to be a footballer.
They rank second only to parents as the people that youngsters admire the most.
You could argue that Kyle is only a role model on the pitch but thanks to sponsorship deals and five million followers on social media, he is a role model, and influencer, off it too.
Children across the country this summer stuck his picture into Euro 2024 albums.
They stayed up late to watch him play and, week in week out, they idolise him at Manchester City.
Nobody wants to see a marriage end.
But nobody wants to see a woman cheated on and humiliated either.
Now Annie can have the greatest revenge of all by hitting him where it truly hurts — his wallet.
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Rihanna at the reddy
LESS is more – unless you’re Rihanna.
In a new promotional photoshoot, she sports amazing scarlet hair, blue fur coat and a red snakeskin outfit that involves a skirt attached loosely to a bustier to show off her bum.
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The singer and businesswoman completes the style with a smouldering pout and terrifying long talons.
Most of us would look like we had walked out of the local brothel but she somehow manages to pull it off.
BORIS JOHNSON has insisted refurbishing his Downing Street flat was necessary because it looked like a “crack den” once he had pulled the carpets out.
You have to wonder how he knows what a crack house looks like.
50 still nifty
I COULDN’T be happier for the newly married Miranda Hart.
But I do wish everyone would stop being so shocked that she tied the knot at the age of 51.
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The actress was 49 when surveyor Richard Fairs came to her £2million home to deal with mould.
It was during the pandemic and she was struggling with chronic fatigue syndrome after being diagnosed with Lyme disease.
In her new book, she says she was so ill that she never thought she would find love and was “fading away”.
I get that.
But now a million relationship experts have taken to social media to discuss how to find love over 50 as if she is some dinosaur.
We are no longer living in the dark ages and no woman should be written off in their 50s – or think that they are either.
Rights bill so wrong
REMEMBER a time when we were all desperate to get out of the house, mingle and live a normal life when Covid struck.
Now, thanks to the Government’s new Employment Rights Bill, we can all return to that because flexible working, including working from home, will be made the “default for all” where possible.
So no mingling in the office, no chatting by the coffee machine when you are feeling down, no making lifelong friends.
And forget office flirting because Zoom and Teams really don’t cut it for the fun things in life.
I’ve worked from home for more than a decade because I live hundreds of miles from head office.
If I could go in every day, I would.
I’ve grown sick of the amount of times people have said: “Oh, but you work from home,” as though I spend my life on the sofa watching This Morning or baking banana bread.
In fact, unless you are a grade A skiver you end up working more because your home is your office and you can’t get away from it.
Plus there is no free coffee and the heating bills are a fortune.
We should be careful what we wish for.
Tash leaves Kitten
WHEN Natasha Hamilton announced on Friday that she had quit Atomic Kitten, I was in utter shock.
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I didn’t even know the band was still going.
Ticket farce unfare
I HAVE sympathy for train passenger Sam Williamson, who mistakenly underpaid for his ticket by £1.90 and now fears a criminal record and huge fine.
He used the Northern Trains app to buy an Anytime ticket to central Manchester last month and used his 16-25 railcard for a discount without realising it can only be used under certain conditions.
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When an inspector grilled him and told him the mistake, he immediately offered to buy a new ticket or pay a penalty.
Instead, the jobsworth reported him and now Sam faces prosecution.
Sam says it isn’t even clear on the app how you can use the railcard.
I had the misfortune of using Northern last month and had a similar experience.
I wanted to buy a cheaper ticket from the app but was told I had to buy one from an employee who, when I explained that the app ticket was cheaper, told me: “Northern don’t care what the customers pay.”
Super. Maybe if the train firms did care and explained their baffling price structures, we wouldn’t hate travelling with them so much
Spice boy hit
MY new motto is: Don’t buy things after drinking wine.
My latest credit card purchase is Brooklyn Beckham’s chilli sauce.
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I saw his mum Victoria plugging Cloud23 on Instagram (obviously) and forked out £30 on two bottles of it as I love spicy food.
He’s been slated for his choice of careers but I can confirm Brooklyn, below, is actually pretty good at this one.
Think Tabasco but not as harsh, with a lovely smoky hit.
I just hope that he ditches the fancy box it comes in and gets it on a supermarket shelf to avoid the big price tag.
