The Little-Known Life Story of Romelu Lukaku

BRUSSELS — Romelu Lukaku is more often seen in sports pages for the goals he scores for club and country with Belgium. The powerful striker is known as one of Europe’s most feared forwards. Yet away from the bright stadium lights, the left-footed attacker has kept his private life tightly shielded from the media.

The Antwerp-born player is deeply protective of his privacy. That caution has a reason. His winding journey, from extreme childhood poverty to family conflict after his father’s death, helped shape the Belgian-Congolese forward into a man who keeps much of his life out of public view.

The Private Side of Romelu Lukaku’s Life Story

According to Athlon Sports, the 191 cm striker limits what is known about his romantic relationships and children. Lukaku is known to be the father of two children, Romeo Emmanuel, born in 2018, and Jordan Lukaku, born around 2022. To this day, the identity of the mothers remains closely guarded from public view.

His dating history is also rarely picked up by the press. His longest-known relationship was with Dutch model Sarah Mens. The two met in Miami in 2016 and dated for five years before splitting up. After that, he was rumored to be close to American rapper Megan Thee Stallion during a wedding in Italy in 2023, though neither side ever confirmed the reports.

As a public figure with a cumulative transfer value that has crossed hundreds of millions of euros across his career at Chelsea, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and AS Roma, constant attention comes with the territory. Choosing to draw a hard line between life on the pitch and life at home has become Lukaku’s way of protecting his mental balance under heavy criticism from fans and the European media.

Poverty and Family Conflict

Football runs in his blood. His father, Roger Lukaku, was a former professional player who once represented Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. His mother, Adolphine Lukaku, became the emotional anchor in his life from an early age.

His childhood in Belgium was shaped by struggle. Lukaku has shared a painful memory of coming home from school and seeing his mother mix milk with water so there would be enough for everyone in the family. That harsh experience later fueled his drive to succeed in football and lift his family’s fortunes.

“I knew we were poor, not just short on money, but truly at the very bottom,” Lukaku recalled in a recent in-depth interview with The Players’ Tribune. “The moment I saw my mother putting water into the milk bottle was the switch that changed my entire life. I promised myself I would never let my mother live like that again.”

But his relationship with his father also carried its own complexities. Roger Lukaku died in September 2025 at the age of 58. His passing left deep grief behind and triggered a new conflict that strained the family further.

Romelu and his younger brother Jordan Lukaku, who is also a professional footballer, were unable to attend their father’s funeral in Kinshasa, DRC. They said local figures attempted to extort money, which blocked the repatriation of the body so it could be brought back and buried properly in Europe.

A Shield in Modern Football

The guarded approach Lukaku has chosen now serves as a shield for the people closest to him from the pressure of modern football. For a player with his profile, even small details from life off the field can be twisted into a news commodity that distracts from performance.

Keeping his private life under wraps has helped him stay focused. His numbers back that up. Lukaku remains one of Belgium’s most reliable scorers, with more than 80 goals for the Red Devils. The silence he builds off the pitch gives him room to stay loud where it matters most: in the box, with decisive goals.

His football career still has more chapters to come. In the end, the public may know Lukaku best for his sharp headers and lethal left foot, while the rest of his life remains his own, protected behind a quiet curtain with his small family.