RONNIE O’SULLIVAN looks on the verge of breaking up with snooker.
The cue master has suggested he is almost done with the sport after 30 years at the top – and this week he and his EastEnders’ actress fiancee split up.
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Ironically considering he is a snooker star, the couple broke off their engagement 147 months after they got together.
The pair got together in 2012 and O’Sullivan proposed in 2013 but they never married.
And they briefly separated in 2022 before patching things up.
But this on-off relationship isn’t the first to grip the sport.
Several other stars have been involved in high-profile splits over the years.
Here, SunSport looks at some of those that made the headlines.
Stephen Hendry and Amanda Tart
Scots Crucible king Hendry met first wife Amanda Tart at a Pontins holiday camp in 1985, when he was just 16.
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They wed 10 years later and had two sons together, Blaine in 1996 and Carter in 2004.
But he broke up with Amanda, sometimes called Mandy, in 2014 – and it wasn’t pretty.
Hendry himself admitted that his life on the road as a snooker professional affected his duties as a father.
Ex-showjumper Mandy, who is still staying in the couple’s plush pad in Auchterarder, Perthshire, said that Hendry walked out on the family: “I thought we had the perfect marriage and I trusted him more than anyone in the world.
“It wasn’t until I filed for divorce that I discovered the true extent of his betrayal.
“One of the last things – and the cruellest – he said before he walked out on us was that he didn’t want to live with us any longer, that he wanted to be on his own and he couldn’t help how he felt.”
Boutique owner Mandy, added: “He was selfish and it was all about his career. It took priority over everything and everyone.”
He started dating then 26-year-old children‘s entertainer and actress Lauren Thundow, after they met when she was selling merchandise at a snooker event.
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Laila Rouass
Snooker genius O’Sullivan started dating actress Rouass in 2012.
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She is known for appearing in Eastenders and Footballers‘ Wives.
But after reconciling following a split in 2022, they have now decided to end things after “going in different directions”, according to one source.
A friend told The Sun: “Ronnie and Laila really threw themselves back into their relationship after the split a couple of years ago.
“He kept posting pics of them online at home together and saying romantic things on special occasions, but that’s all come to a halt.
“They’ve tried so hard but they just can’t make it work.”
Mark Allen and Reanne Evans
This relationship became part of snooker – given that either half of the couple are both professional players.
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Evans, from Dudley in the Midlands, is one of the greatest of all-time on the women‘s side, winning a record 12 world championships.
Her first came in 2005 when she beat Lynette Horsburgh of Scotland and that was the same year she and Allen, from Antrim in Northern Ireland, started dating.
They gave birth to a daughter, named Lauren, in 2006 but ended the relationship in 2008.
The break-up cause Allen to fall into a deep depression and since then they have had legal wranglings over child maintenance payments, with Allen saying in 2022 that he doesn’t get to see his daughter anymore.
Evans also does punditry work for the BBC these days but she was conversationally told to leave by the broadcaster during coverage of the 2021 World Championships because she was “distracting” her ex who was practising near to the studio.
And a couple of months later that year they actually played AGAINST each other in the British Open, with Allen winning 3-2.
Allen is now in another relationship.
Matthew Stevens and Clare Holloway
Welsh wizard Stevens became a dad with then-girlfriend Clare in 2004, which came the year after the biggest triumph of his career when he beat Hendry in the UK Championship final.
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The pair met in a Swansea kebab shop and tied the knot in 2009 during a ceremony on a beach in Jamaica.
They split after having another son but divorced in 2015 – weeks after the snooker star had gone bankrupt.
Matthew claimed Clare had been seeing another man while Clare blamed their break-up on the snooker star’s drinking (Stevens was hit with a driving ban for being over the limit behind the wheel).
Shaun Murphy and Clare Llewellyn
The Magician, originally from Harlow, moved to Rotherham in 2004 when he began dating Clare and they married the same year he won his first (and to date, only) world championship in 2005.
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But his wife filed for divorce in 2009 on the grounds of infidelity after a tabloid expose reported that he spent a night with an escort.
The player’s manager issued a statement confirming that Murphy had slept with the woman but denied he had been unfaithful to Claure, stating that Murphy did not have intercourse with her.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
But the relationship was over and since then Murphy has remarried, proposing to Elaine O’Reilly at a restaurant in her native Ireland during Christmas 2014.
They married in June 2016 and have since had a son and daughter and moved to Ireland.
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