Ronnie O'Sullivan on Charlie Sheen, addiction and chasing an eighth world snooker title - 'I'm lucky to be alive'
Published 24/11/2025 at 14:20 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed he would not have been around to pursue his dream of an eighth world title if he had not swapped his love of partying hard for running harder. The snooker GOAT admits his addictive personality and a self-harming battle with alcoholism could have torched his golden career but is relieved he managed to ditch drink for exercise after a make-or-break period in rehab.
'I caused a lot of damage' - O'Sullivan on regrets, 'vulnerable' times
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Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed he was on the road to ruin after a six-year period of self-harm damaged his formative years and his aspirations to pursue his childhood dreams on the old green baize.
O'Sullivan has become the most successful player in history, winning seven world titles, eight UK Championship crowns and eight Masters amid an overall haul of 80 major tournament wins, all the while making a record 1305 centuries and 17 147s since turning professional in 1993.
He celebrated a 10-6 victory over Stephen Hendry at the 1993 UK Championship in Preston that saw him become the youngest winner of a ranking tournament at the age of 17, a record that still stands 32 years on.
Amid an outpouring of public support during his life and time as the 'People's Champion', following in the footsteps of fellow crowd-pleasers Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White, O'Sullivan concedes it has been a wild and disturbing ride to self-enlightenment.
A journey as undulating as the greens around Augusta National which Rory McIlroy, who O'Sullivan met last week in his adopted home of Dubai, conquered to claim a maiden Masters in April.
"It's a nice thing in many ways [to have public support], but I don't want people to feel sorry for me either. Do you know what I mean? Oh, you know, he's had his problems," said O'Sullivan in an interview which airs on TNT Sports on November 25, four days before the start of the 49th UK Championship in York.
"It'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'd do things so much differently. I think I would not have 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.
"I think if I could take six years, seven years out of my life and do them differently, it would have been from maybe 19 to 25.
"Because I think I caused a lot of damage in those years to my game, which in effect caused a lot of damage to my off-the-table sort of way of life.
"I think I've become quite vulnerable, quite unconfident."
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Watch the moment O'Sullivan gets huge ovation in Crucible return
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O'Sullivan recently watched a TV production about infamous Hollywood hellraiser Charlie Sheen, which centred around his alcohol addiction and saw familiar similarities between himself and the Wall Street actor.
"I just watched the Charlie Sheen documentary, and he went for about 30 years," added O'Sullivan. "And I looked at him and I went, well, I got out early. I got out after three years. So I had a result.
"Charlie's dream went for like 30 years. And I was with him, and I was thinking, 'Wow, man, he's lucky to be alive'. And there are times when you feel like that could have been me.
"Binges, long binges. Days. Days, yeah, days. And don't get me wrong, the first two or three years were great. We had a great time.
"But then it gets to a bit of a point where, like he says, it's like fun, and then it's fun with problems. Then it's just problems."
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O'Sullivan emotional as he clinches UK Championship glory with stunning clearance
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O'Sullivan, who has battled depression for decades, may not have been a full-blown alcoholic, but concedes there is no question he had a drink problem that had to be confronted away from the table as much as his rivals on it.
"I felt like I got to that point where it was a problem, and it became a bit of an effort, especially as a sports person," he said.
"There's no hiding place. You've got to be on the ball. It never stopped me. It never stopped me.
"You know, a little two or three weeks off down the gym, feeling good again, and I thought I had it licked again. And I didn't.
"But it was only once I threw the towel in. It was actually one of my sober moments, where I felt a bit down.
"The reason why I was down was because I was missing that excitement, or what I thought was excitement. I couldn't live sober in a way. I found living sober a problem.
"This is not good. So that's when it hit me.
"And that's when I reached out for help, and that's when I went to rehab and got clean and realised that being sober and clean and happy was where I used to be and that's where I want to be.
"But I can't keep thinking I can get away with the odd night out anymore.
"The rehab process. A month, a month in there. And then obviously nine months, I was out for nine months and was clean.
"And then I fell off again, went, had one drink, but one drink's like, you might as well have a thousand drinks, they say, you know. It wasn't until I fully accepted that, that I can..
"I always say, it was the odd drink, so it wasn't like it before, but as an addict, you have this bit of denial that's always there, and thinking, 'Well, I wasn't as bad as maybe I thought?'
"That's why I got into running, because I just thought, 'It's just another addiction, but a healthy addiction."
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O'Sullivan picks off century to set Crucible record of first-round tons
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O'Sullivan has claimed world titles in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022 to level the 1990s haul of seven Crucible wins achieved by Hendry.
"I believe in the snooker gods, like we play snooker, you get out what you put in, and I think, at times, you get a result when you least expect it," said the 41-time ranking event winner.
"Do you know what I'm saying? And you say, 'Okay, that was nice, you know. I didn't see that one coming'.
"So it just restores your faith. I always like to feel that there's a snooker god out there."
On the cusp of turning 50 next month, he brings up the half-century on December 5 during the UK Championship in York. There is not much more for O'Sullivan to achieve with an eighth triumph in Sheffield perhaps the one last remaining target left to be ticked off.
Armed with a new cue and relocated and rejuvenated in Dubai, the Essex professional admits he has fallen back in love with the game that appears to be a constant source of mental pain and pleasure. A sport, like golf, that was never meant to be perfected by any player.
"I'd love to win another World Championships, but for me, it's just about, 'Am I having fun out there?'," he continued. "I probably know how to just roll with the punches much more.
"But yeah, I think I enjoy it more now than I ever have done, which is great, to finally be able to just treat your job like it's a hobby?
"Well, I've always kind of had that sort of way about it. I think sometimes, I was maybe a bit hard on myself.
"I feel like I enjoy it, even though it's high-pressured and you're playing against great players all the time.
"I still feel like I'm able to retain that youth-ism towards my sport, you know?"
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