The legend that is is set to make a dramatic comeback this week, ready to lock horns with his arch-nemesis at the 2025 . The potting maestro, a seven-time world champion, has been absent from competitive play since January following an extraordinary incident where he snapped his cue in half and discarded it during the .

Despite recently expressing , O'Sullivan has opted to compete at the Crucible this week amid rumours that he for the first time in over three decades. O'Sullivan's return is marked by a highly anticipated grudge match, as he's in the opening round, reigniting their notorious rivalry. Now 49, The Rocket is eager to shift the focus back to his prowess on the green baize after much of his personal life has been splashed across the media, including and his .

With a reputation as one of snooker's greatest ever players, O'Sullivan boasts an impressive net worth estimated at around £20million. The snooker maestro has amassed approximately £14.5m in prize money alone since his career kick-started as a teenager. O'Sullivan boasts an impressive tally of 41 ranking titles, inclusive of 23 Triple Crown victories.

Despite his sparse appearances in the 2024/25 season, he pocketed £1.25m in prize money during the previous season, courtesy of his victories at the Shanghai Masters, UK Championship, the Masters, World Grand Prix and World Masters.

Beyond tournament winnings, O'Sullivan also rakes in substantial earnings through lucrative sponsorship deals with tech firm ROKiT, Eurosport and snooker enterprise BCE Riley.

O'Sullivan's on-again, off-again relationship with Laila Rouass, known for her roles in EastEnders, Holby City and Footballers' Wives, spanned over a decade before they decided to part ways permanently last year. The duo first crossed paths in 2012 when Rouass was house hunting and visited O'Sullivan's property. The snooker star later asked her out via the estate agent. They got engaged within a year and remained together for nearly a decade before their split in 2022.

They briefly reconciled but separated again in early 2024. Rouass subsequently shared insights into how she coped with the breakup on Instagram, writing: "Break ups can strip you down to your essence.

"I got through mine by using pain as fuel to take control because no matter what, we will lose parts of ourselves in relationships. It's normal, don't beat yourself up," she wrote. "One thing I'm conscious of not doing is trying to get back where I was," the actress elaborated. "No, I'm discovering who I've become. I've gone through various emotions... hurt, pain, anger but what I've realised about anger is that it's bottomless."

O'Sullivan, father to three children from previous relationships, first became a dad to Taylor Ann with former girlfriend Sally Magnus in 1997. He shares a son, Ronnie Jr, and a daughter, Lily, with ex-partner Jo Langley. The snooker legend also embraced grandfatherhood at 42 when Taylor-Ann had a daughter in 2018.

Struggling with recent challenges, O'Sullivan has now signalled a potential end date for his storied snooker career should he be unable to rekindle his passion for the sport. In a candid discussion with , the 49-year-old superstar confessed the last time he truly enjoyed playing was in 2018, even though he's won two world championships since then. Although he's not hanging up his cue right this moment, he's expressed that the clock is ticking, setting a two-year deadline to ignite his enthusiasm or retire from the game.

"I'm not quitting just yet, but I will give myself two years to try and figure it out," he declared to the Daily Mail. "I don't want to finish my career feeling like I wasn't really performing to the level that I know I can. I don't have to win tournaments, but I just want to feel like I'm enjoying the game. I'd like to go out with a smile on my face.

"Do I think I can do it? Probably not if I'm being honest. I think it's probably a bit too late in my career and I'm probably damaged goods in the form of a snooker player. From the age of 12 to 16, I loved the game. If that had continued through my career, I'd say to my kids, 'yeah, go and play snooker, it's been amazing'.

"But I've had a lot of problems from 17 up until now and it takes its toll on you. It starts to sap away at your happiness. You take a lot of battle scars over the years. But I'm not prepared to quit at this point because I feel like I would be quitting on a bit of a low. Most people who live in the real world probably have four or five different jobs in their career. But as a sportsman, you only get one, so you have to stick with it whether it's good or bad. You have got to stay in it until you decide that it's not working for you."

O'Sullivan's life took a dramatic turn when his father, Ronnie Sr, received a life sentence for murder in 1992, after fatally stabbing Bruce Bryan, chauffeur to gangster Charlie Kray, in a nightclub. Ronnie Sr, who once owned several sex shops in Soho and guided his son in the early stages of his snooker career, served 18 years behind bars.

During this tumultuous time, O'Sullivan's mother Maria found herself unable to tell him about his father's arrest, instead encouraging him to participate in a tournament in Thailand, away from the chaos at home. In the revealing Amazon Prime documentary "Ronnie O'Sullivan: The Edge of Everything," the snooker sensation's mother, Maria, recounted the harrowing moment her son "collapsed" in his hotel room upon discovering his father's fate.

"I couldn't tell Ronnie," Maria confessed. "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 himself tearfully contributed to the narrative, saying: "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****** 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."