Emotional Ronnie O’Sullivan reflects on his rise to the top of snooker despite spiralling after the arrest of his father and battling his inner demons… as new documentary provides glimpse into his inner sanctum
Ronnie O’Sullivan takes a deep breath, scratches his forehead and begins to wipe the tears from his eyes. “You get a bit emotional sometimes,” says the seven-time world snooker champion, his gaze now firmly on the ground rather than on his interviewer.
O’Sullivan has just described the moment he sat in court at the age of 16 and watched his father receive a life sentence for murder. And it’s cut off at the part of the story where Ronnie senior asks for a message to be passed on to his son, just as he’s being taken to the cells.
After a 30-second pause, O’Sullivan composes himself to conclude his heartbreaking memory of that day in 1992. “He just said, ‘Tell my boy to win,’” the Rocket recalls. ‘Typical. “Just tell my boy to win.” That is it.’
To win. It’s something O’Sullivan had instilled in him from an early age by his father, and something he went on to do in record fashion. But, as the 47-year-old explains in his riveting new Amazon Prime documentary, his father’s prison sentence also sent him into a tailspin and nearly destroyed his life and career.
“I didn’t want to blame everything on the situation with my father,” O’Sullivan says. ‘But I just think I’d rather not have snooker, just have a normal family. I didn’t have to experience that. Forget snooker. Just normal.’
An emotional Ronnie O’Sullivan has reflected on his rise to the top of the snooker world
Winning was instilled in O’Sullivan from an early age, even though he was haunted by personal demons
O’Sullivan’s father was given a life sentence for murder when his son was just 16 years old
In Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of EverythingRonnie Snr himself gives a rare interview about the murder of Bruce Bryan – the driver of Charlie Kray, a brother of infamous gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie – in a Chelsea nightclub.
“I know I took that man’s life,” he says. “But if I hadn’t done what I did, I would have been dead. When they sentenced me, I cried when I came downstairs. Not for myself, but for my family. Going to jail wasn’t good for Ronnie.’
O’Sullivan’s father conducts his interviews with director Sam Blair off camera, as does his mother, Maria. Her voice breaks as she expresses her regret for not immediately informing her son of his father’s arrest
“I couldn’t tell Ronnie,” she says. ‘About three days later he was going to Thailand. I thought if he goes there three days early, he won’t know what’s going on, his father will come back, it will be a mistake, and he won’t know any different.
‘This guy, John, takes him to Thailand, but Barry Hearn (his manager) said, “Maria, you have to tell him because it’s going to be in all the papers tomorrow.” So I called up and said, “Ron, your dad’s in jail, they killed him.”
O’Sullivan is the subject of a documentary that provides unparalleled access behind the scenes
The superstar has spoken freely about his turbulent family life and his determination to carry on
‘I heard him shouting on the phone. He just collapsed in the hotel room. I shouldn’t have sent him. I’m sorry now that I should have told him right away, but I thought I would protect him. It was wrong and I don’t think he ever forgave me for that.’
O’Sullivan’s parents doubted whether their son would continue to play the sport for which he had such a prodigious talent. The player himself admits that quitting was the ‘healthiest’ thing he could have done.
However, he says he felt ‘compelled’ to continue and a year after his father was sent away, a 17-year-old O’Sullivan defeated Stephen Hendry in the final of the British Championship to become the youngest player to win a rankings title .
Two days later he posed for photographs outside Gartree Prison with his trophy before going inside to show it to his old man.
However, we learn that that smile for the camera masked O’Sullivan’s true feelings. Because by then he was already battling inner demons that would later drive him to drink, drugs and destruction.
O’Sullivan won the final of the British Championship and took the trophy to HMP Gartree to show his father
His smile for the camera masked his true feelings and drove O’Sullivan to drink and drugs
“I wasn’t very good at keeping all this stuff inside me,” O’Sullivan admits. ‘People could see I was imploding.
‘If I had really let go, they would have locked me up. They would have said, “Look, he’s a danger to himself.” Just self-doubt, self-sabotage, and hatred of myself.”
One of the people who noticed his implosion was his friend Ronnie Wood, the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist. “He drowned his sorrows and a lot of his inner thoughts with booze or drugs,” Wood says. ‘It wasn’t just a gram, it was supposed to be an ounce! That was giving in to addiction.”
In 2000, O’Sullivan checked himself into the Priory to treat those addictions. A year later, he fulfilled the prediction his father made when he was just nine years old: that he would one day win the world title.
O’Sullivan’s second Crucible crown came in 2004 and Ronnie senior vividly remembers the atmosphere in his prison that night. “When he pocketed the last ball to win that World Cup, all wings closed for him,” he says.
O’Sullivan’s parents were unsure whether their son (seen in 1994) would continue playing the sport
His second Crucible victory came in 2004 and was watched by hundreds in his father’s prison
“At night, when it’s all quiet, everyone’s busy, and suddenly the doors open – 600 scams, smashing the doors down for my son. It just blew me away. You couldn’t give me a billion pounds for that experience.’
Ronnie Snr was released in 2010 after serving 18 years behind bars. When his son won his record-equalling seventh world title in 2022, he joined him at the table for photos with the trophy.
It turns out to be a fitting finale for the documentary, which was made by David Beckham’s Studio 99. O’Sullivan granted filmmakers unrestricted access to his historic Crucible campaign that year and it produces astonishing footage, not least in the inner sanctum of his dressing room during the final.
With Judd Trump mounting a comeback on the second afternoon to cut a 12-5 overnight deficit to 14-11, we see O’Sullivan on the brink of a total collapse.
“I feel f*****,” he tells his celebrity psychologist, Dr. Steve Peters. ‘My energy is gone. I feel like I have stage fright. It’s terrible. I hate it. I feel like I want to cry. I feel like I don’t want to face it. I’m fucking gone. I’m afraid.’
O’Sullivan won his seventh world title and made history after beating Judd Trump in 2022
A microphone attached to O’Sullivan’s vest captured his warm conversation with Trump
Encouraged by Peters, O’Sullivan regroups for the final session and takes away four of the next six frames to seal a famous win.
The emotions then pour out of the Crucible’s oldest champion, who cries in Trump’s arms as their never-before-heard conversation is clearly captured on the microphone he chose to wear on his vest for his documentary.
“It’s killing me,” a broken O’Sullivan tells Trump at the end of a lengthy conversation.
The magnanimous defeated finalist replies: ‘You are the best player of all time. You are a legend.’
He is, and as this raw and unvarnished documentary goes on to show us, he is also one of the most tortured and tormented souls in sports.
Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything premieres exclusively in cinemas across the UK on Tuesday, with a live Q&A with O’Sullivan, executive producer David Beckham and director Sam Blair, hosted by Alastair Campbell.
The documentary will then be released on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland on Thursday, before opening in select cinemas across the country on Friday.