Ronnie O’Sullivan opened up about the period in his life that caused him the most damage
Ronnie O’Sullivan has confessed his battle with alcoholism inflicted “a lot of damage” on both his personal life and snooker career. As the 49-year-old prepares to compete in this week’s UK Championship, he candidly discussed the demons he’s battled throughout his life, particularly his relationship with alcohol.
The snooker legend, who previously admitted he’d “lost himself” to booze and drugs during the 1990s after turning professional at just 16, spoke frankly to TNT Sports about his drinking problems and the devastating impact they had during the later stages of his career.
When asked what he’d change if given the chance to rewrite history, the seven-time world champion reflected: “It’s a nice thing in many ways [to have support] but I don’t want people to feel sorry for me either, thinking ‘oh, he’s had his problems, this, that’.
“That’s life, life throws you whatever and you have to deal with it and that’s a blessing that we have. I haven’t always dealt with it, if I could turn the clock back, I would do things so much differently. I think I would have not gone a bit wayward when I was 18,19. I wish I’d not ventured out into that drinking, partying sort of thing, that way of life.
“If I could take six, seven years out of my life and do them differently, it would have been from 2019 to 2025. I think I caused a lot of damage in those years to my game, which, in effect, caused a lot of damage off the table, that way of life. I became quite vulnerable, unconfident.”
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Despite winning seven ranking finals over a six-year period, O’Sullivan confessed that his troubles with alcoholism left him feeling empty and fearing he could have been lost to excess for decades.
He said: “I just watched the Charlie Sheen documentary and he went on for about 30 years. I got out after three years, so I had a result, but he went on for 30 years and I was thinking wow, he’s lucky to be alive. There are times when you feel like that could have been me.”
Now a keen runner, O’Sullivan shared how he came to the decision to quit drinking. It was during a sober moment that he decided to put down the bottle for good. “It was actually one of my sober moments,” O’Sullivan admitted.
“I felt a bit down, and the reason I was feeling down was because I was missing that excitement, what I thought was excitement. I couldn’t live sober in a way, I found living sober a problem. I thought, ‘This is not good’, and that’s when it hit me.
“I reached out for help and I went to rehab and got clean, and realised being sober and clean and happy was where I used to be and where I want to be. I can’t keep thinking I can get away with the odd night out anymore.”
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