After a life that’s proven almost as colourful away from the snooker table as on it, recovering addict Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan reckons he has found some balance.
“I’m less intense,” says the seven-time world champion. “I’ve not mellowed in that I’ve changed my personality, but I’ve learned to just not take myself too seriously. I’m much more philosophical.”
At 47, he’s been at the top of his game for longer than many of his peers.
Yet it wasn’t an easy start for the former bad boy of snooker. His dad was jailed for murder when Ronnie was 16, and he had problems with drugs, alcohol and depression.
He has overcome periods of self-doubt, only to come back stronger than ever.
His struggles with severe anxiety and “snooker depression” are charted in his latest book, Unbreakable.
These days, he runs, paints and sticks with people he considers to be true friends, far away from the celebrity circuit.
He has a good relationship with his parents, who are divorced – Ron Sr was freed in 2010 after serving 18 years– and has been with his partner Holby City actress Laila Rouass for a decade, although they briefly split last year.
“It’s good,” he says of their relationship, smiling. “She’s great. I love her. She’s great company and I love being around her.
“She’s very supportive. I have to behave myself. I know when to go, ‘Alright, you’re in charge’. But she’s also really good at going, ‘Listen, you’ve got a busy life, you’ve got a lot to do, just get on with it’.
“Now it feels a lot better – everyone’s just in a better place. I just want to see her and her daughter happy, and her family, who are like my family, happy.”
In the book, he says his worst times were from 1994 to 2000.
He says rehab and running saved him, while the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Steps programme and a good sports psychiatrist have also helped.
“I went to AA and NA, I learned about addiction and struggled for about three or four years, because I just couldn’t accept that I was an addict,” he says.
“Now I don’t question it, whereas before, I’d go out and try to drink sensibly and fail miserably. So now, I think, don’t even start. They say if you stand outside the barber’s long enough, eventually you’ll get a haircut.
“So I stay away from clubs, from people that drink. They’re not for me, because eventually that will be me.”
A diary he’s kept for the last 10 years helps manage his anxiety. He puts smiley, neutral or miserable faces against entries and then works out what triggers him – which is often taking on too much – and has developed a template to maintain his mental wellbeing.
“I’d rather just stay simmering with my work, which means I’m not at high intensity all the time, just ticking over.”
Ronnie, who was awarded an OBE for services to snooker in 2016, has been described as “the most naturally gifted player ever”.
He was potting balls from age seven, scored his first century by 10, and turned professional at 16.
He was nicknamed The Rocket for his fast pace and holds the record for the fastest 147 maximum break – five minutes, eight seconds.
His Sicilian mother Maria also spent time in jail for tax evasion, leaving him to look after his little sister Danielle.
But his father’s imprisonment had a huge effect on his life. He says: “That was the biggest thing that just ravaged me, mentally and emotionally, it just ruined me. I thought, that’s it, I’m never going to see him.”
His misspent youth and problems with drugs, alcohol and depression have been well charted in two previous autobiographies.
Unbreakable focuses more on how he feels when playing, and how he’s learned to take care of himself.
He largely credits his improvement to his sports psychiatrist mentor Dr Steve Peters.
He says: “He has given me the ability to work it out for myself, get on with it and not be afraid to confront stuff and know how to get on top of it.”
O’Sullivan admits he hasn’t been the best parent, doesn’t see his eldest child Taylor-Ann and hasn’t been a hands-on parent to his two other children, Lily and Ronnie Jr after splitting from their mother.
He says: “It got to a point where I thought it was best for everyone, for my sanity and their sanity, that as long as they’re healthy, they’re good, I’m going to play the long game.”
He says he hopes to forge a better relationship with them as they get older. He sees his younger two children at weekends, and they were at The Crucible in Sheffield last year to see him win the World Championship.
He predicts he may continue for another couple of years, but while he’s still doing well, he won’t quit.
Now he is able to separate his snooker life from his other interests, he loves the sport again.
“We still do the things we love, but we have a way of detaching ourselves to live life a bit – and then have the confidence that when I go back to it, it’s still going to be there,” he says.
* Unbreakable by Ronnie O’Sullivan with Tom Fordyce is published by Seven Dials on May 11, priced £22.
