England’s World Cup 2026 campaign is well and truly underway, with the likes of Jude Bellingham heading out to the Americas to try and bring football home. And while we’ve been tuning in from kick-off in the hopes of seeing some stellar play, we’re also huge fans of getting little insights into the personal lives of the players – including their wives and girlfriends.

22-year-old Jude Bellingham, who plays for La Liga’s Real Madrid at a club level, is one of the nation’s shining stars this season, and is dating Ashlyn Castro. But who exactly is she? Here’s what you need to know about her career, background, age, famous ex-boyfriend and more.

Ashlyn was born on the 17th December 1997, making her 28 years old and six years senior to Jude, who is 22 (about to be 23 though on the 29th June.)

She was born in California in the US, making this the perfect World Cup for her.

She’s an influencer, model and content creator with a massive 675k followers on Instagram. Her bio simply reads as a green heart, and her grid shows off brand partnerships with the likes of Clarins, lots of selfies and outfit pictures from tropical locations, as well as beauty and lifestyle content.

The pair are very private about their relationship, and so neither of them have ever publicly spoken out to reveal how they met. It’s thought, though, that they matched on celebrity dating app Raya in late 2024, and she was later seen hanging out with his parents at a Real Madrid game in early 2025. They were spotted interacting on Instagram as early as November 2024.

Since then, the pair have been photographed together a number of times, including after the Croatia game in Dallas on 17th June, and also at the Spanish tennis open back in April.

Ashlyn was linked to none other than Academy Award winning actor Michael B. Jordan from Sinners. According to Fashion Times, the pair were photographed together in “late 2017, after she was seen with him at a private event in Los Angeles, where photographs showed her sitting on his lap.”

Neither Michael not Ashlyn ever confirmed the rumours, so they could easily be just that: rumours. There does appear to be a video of them together circulating on Instagram, but it could just as easily be as friends or strangers who met for one night out.

The Sun have also linked her to basketball player LaMelo Ball, 23.

According to The Sun, Jude was reportedly dating model Laura Celia Valk back in April 2024, and was said to be “completely smitten”, however she confirmed she was single shortly afterwards.

Back in 2023, he was then thought to be dating model Asantewa Chitty, while he was previously linked to US TikTok creator Azra Mian.

Now all we need is some more PDA moments please, you two!

BETTING ODDS: Ruziboev (-225); Pulyaev (+180)

Towering 185-pounders clash in this intriguing preliminary bout
when 6-foot-5 Ruziboev seeks his third straight win against
6-foot-4 Pulyaev, who needs a victory to pull back up to .500 in
the UFC.

Incredibly for the tallest middleweight in the UFC, Ruziboev tried
his hand at welterweight two years ago, coming up short, no pun
intended, against fellow ‘tweener Joaquin
Buckley. He bounced back with two straight wins at
middleweight, then had a matchup with Bryan
Battle scratched last summer when Battle missed weight
badly.

Ruziboev is a powerful striker with good kicks from both legs and a
very powerful right hand that he can sometimes rely on too heavily,
to the point of becoming predictable in pocket exchanges. He can
sometimes be drawn into leg kicking contests with fighters he could
outclass in other ways, simply because his own calf kicks are very
effective and he prefers looking for counterpunches to checking his
opponent’s kicks.

He has not used it nearly as often since joining the UFC, but
Ruziboev’s wrestling is unorthodox yet effective, as one might
expect of a titanic, lanky man who sometimes wants the fight on the
ground. He is one of the few fighters with his build who doesn’t
mind changing levels and shooting, but his best work comes from the
clinch, where he can sneak trip and body lock attempts into the
flow of close-quarters striking. On the ground, he makes full use
of his huge frame, locking up back control and body triangles, and
threatening with chokes from a variety of angles.

Pulyaev is in nearly every way the opposite of what one might
expect of an Alexander
Shlemenko protégé. Where “Storm” was a short, stocky (even
portly, depending on which weight class he was competing in) yet
explosive, whirling dervish of spinning strikes, Pulyaev is a tall,
long-limbed, mediocre athlete who employs a very conventional
kickboxing game. The 28-year-old Russian is a rangy southpaw who
can sometimes look quite disciplined and technical, but can lapse
into swinging sloppily if he is hurt, tired or frustrated.

Pulyaev’s defensive wrestling and grappling have always been
liabilities, and that has held true in the UFC. His defensive stats
look decent on paper, but the numbers belie the fact that Nick Klein,
who appears to be a marginal UFC talent at best, had significant
success getting him down despite his gameplan being screamingly
obvious.

This matchup feels lopsided in a way the betting line might not
even truly reflect. Ruziboev is the more diverse, harder hitting
striker and by far the better ground fighter. At 32, with 50 fights
on his record and after over a year away, there is the outside
possibility that Ruziboev suddenly looks old in the cage, but
assuming he is roughly the same fighter who won two fights in the
first half of 2025, he should win easily. The pick is Ruziboev by
second-round submission.

Jump To »

Hasanov vs. Nolan

Yakhyaev vs. Walker
Ruziboev vs. Pulyaev

Ofli vs. Reyes

Donchenko vs. Berggren

Almakhan vs. Matsumoto

Abdullaev vs. Nascimento

Key takeaways for the next few days:

• Most of the overnight storms will be across the southern half of the state.
• Some heavy downpours are coming, but it won’t be as widespread
• Building heat for the weekend with heat indices above 105
• Drier weather for much of the region

Saturday – Some very early morning storms are a possibility over southern Kansas right around daybreak, but they will exit quickly. Much of the area should return to sunshine for the afternoon with increasing south winds.

Sunday – Heat is the main focus of the weekend and a Storm Team 12 Weather Alert as feels like temperatures get to near 105. Stronger south winds are likely to gust above 30 mph throughout much of the state.

Monday – Dangerous heat likely to continue with a steady south wind for most of the area.

Wichita Area Forecast:

Tonight: Late night scattered storms. Wind: SE 5-15. Low: 70.

Tomorrow: Early AM storms, then partly cloudy. Wind: SE/S 10-25; gusty. High: 90.

Tomorrow night: Mostly cloudy and breezy. Wind: S 10-20; gusty. Low: 76.

Sun: High: 93 Mostly sunny; windy.

Mon: High: 94 Low: 77 Mostly sunny; windy.

Tue: High: 94 Low: 79 Mostly sunny; breezy.

Wed: High: 93 Low: 78 Becoming partly cloudy.

Thu: High: 93 Low: 78 Partly cloudy.

Fri: High: 94 Low: 76 Mostly sunny