Ronnie O'Sullivan's massive net worth, split from EastEnders actress and dad's murder sentence

Snooker fans attending the Scottish Open this week have been left disappointed after Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the tournament on the eve of his opening match.

'The Rocket' had been due to face Xing Zihao of China on Tuesday, but will no longer be taking part in the Edinburgh event, with world No. 1 Judd Trump and three-time world champion Mark Williams also opting to miss it. In the trio's absence, Xing will receive a bye to the second round, as will Ishpreet Singh Chadha and David Lilley, who were set to face Trump and Williams respectively.

O'Sullivan - a seven-time world champion - is yet to explain exactly why he has decided to skip the tournament, but it has been suggested he has done so to give him more time to prepare for the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, which starts in Saudi Arabia on December 18.

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It's certainly not the first time the 49-year-old has pulled such a move, having also withdrawn from the British Open and Northern Ireland Open earlier this year for 'medical reasons'. In recent years, he has also spoken about how the game has become 'emotionless' for him and suggested he was weighing up retiring.

His personal life has also come under the spotlight more, from his split from an EastEnders actress to his painful relationship with his father. Here's what you need to know.

Massive net worth

As one of the few players in history to transcend snooker, O'Sullivan is estimated to have a massive net worth of around £20million.

With a record 41 ranking titles to his name - including 23 Triple Crown titles - the 49-year-old has also pocketed around £14.5million in prize money over the course of his 32-year professional career.

In the 2023/24 season alone, O'Sullivan earned £1.25million in prize money, having won the Shanghai Masters, UK Championship, the Masters, World Grand Prix and World Masters.

He has also boosted his net worth with big sponsorship deals with the likes of tech company ROKiT, Eurosport and snooker business BCE Riley. O'Sullivan has also written three autobiographies as well as crime novels and even a cook book.

Split from actress

O'Sullivan's withdrawal from the British Open in September came amid rumours of a split with long-time partner and actress Laila Rouass.

The couple met in 2012 when Rouass was looking for a new house and was shown around the snooker star's property. O'Sullivan later contacted the estate agent, who asked out the actress on his behalf.

They got engaged just a year later and were together for nearly a decade before splitting up in 2022. That break-up didn't last long, however, as they patched things up again with months and got back together.

But earlier this year, Rouass - who this year joined the cast of EastEnders and has also starred in Holby City and Footballers' Wives - was seen without her diamond engagement ring and it was widely reported that the pair had again gone their separate ways.

O'Sullivan has three children from previous relationships, having first welcomed a daughter, Taylor Ann, with ex-girlfriend Sally Magnus in 1997. He also has a son, Ronnie Jr, and a daughter, Lily, with his former partner of eight years, Jo Langley, after they met at Narcotics Anonymous.

The snooker ace became a grandfather at 42 in October 2018 after Taylor-Ann gave birth to a daughter.

Dad's murder sentence

O'Sullivan was a talented player as a teenager but has admitted that his life and career was nearly derailed when his father, Ronnie Sr, was sent to prison for murder.

A former owner of a string of sex shops in Soho, Ronnie Sr was a mentor for his son during the early years of his snooker career but was jailed in 1992 after stabbing a man to death in a nightclub in Chelsea. The man he killed, Bruce Bryan, was the driver of gangster Charlie Kray, the brother of the notorious Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie.

While he was handed a life sentence, he was released in 2010 after 18 years in prison.

O'Sullivan opened up about his dad's prison sentence during the Amazon Prime documentary Ronnie O'Sullivan: The Edge of Everything, while his mother Maria explained how she had encouraged him to go to a tournament in Thailand to distance him from the news after Ronnie Sr's arrest.

"I couldn't tell Ronnie," said Maria. 'He was due to go to Thailand about three days after. I thought that if he goes there three days earlier, he won't know what's going on, his dad will come back out, it will be a mistake, and he won't know any different.

"This guy John takes him to Thailand but Barry Hearn said, 'Maria, you've got to tell him because it will be in all the papers tomorrow'. So I phone up and I said, 'Ron, your dad is in prison, they've done him for murder'.

"I heard him screaming down the phone. He just collapsed in the hotel room. I shouldn't have sent him. My regret now is that I should have told him straight away but I thought I'd protect him. It was wrong and I don't think he ever forgave me for that."

O'Sullivan tearfully added. "My dad was being carted off, he'd been sentenced, he just looked up to the woman and he just said, 'Tell my boy to win'. Typical. 'Just tell my boy to win'.

"That was it. F***ing 30 years ago. Part of me was thinking, 'F*** you and f*** this, just f*** everybody. The healthiest thing for me to do was probably to stop playing snooker. But I didn't, I just felt compelled to stick with it.

"I didn't want to blame everything on that situation with my dad," he added. "But I just think I would rather not have the snooker, just have a normal family. Not had to have gone through that. Forget the snooker. Just normal."

"If it wasn't for him in my early days I probably wouldn’t have been a professional sportsman or anything, he instilled that discipline in me," he continued. "He came from a hard background...I was a bit flaky, just wanted to have fun and have a laugh. He was like, no, we don't do it like that. He incorporated that bit of seriousness into how I go about my career really."

In a rare interview, O'Sullivan Sr said: "I know I took that man's life. But if I hadn't have done what I'd done, I would have been dead. When they sentenced me, I cried when I got downstairs. Not for myself, but for my family. Going to prison wasn't good for Ronnie."