A tearful Ronnie O'Sullivan told his children snooker "will kill me" after winning a record-equalling seventh World Snooker Championship last year.
O'Sullivan beat Judd Trump 18-13 in the final and after the pair shared an emotional embrace, the 47-year-old broke down in tears. He then hugged his two youngest children, Lily and Ronnie Jr, and said: "I can't f***ing do this anymore, it will kill me."
Footage of the exchange is included in O'Sullivan's new Amazon Prime documentary, 'The Edge of Everything', which features the snooker legend bravely speaking out about his mental health struggles.
O'Sullivan has been playing snooker professionally since 1992, having turned professional at the age of just 16. However, that same year his father Ronald was jailed after killing the driver of gangster Charlie Kray – the brother of twins Ronnie and Reggie.
His father ultimately spent 17 years behind bars and O'Sullivan has opened up about the impact it had on him, admitting: "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, but I was thinking, 'I'd rather not have the snooker', just a normal family, forget the snooker, whatever normal life is. Because… it was a dream, but looking back, it was a nightmare.
"I wasn't good at having all this stuff locked inside me. People could see that I was imploding. If I had really let it all out they'd have locked me up. They'd have said he's a danger to himself. Just self doubt and self sabotage and hatred towards myself."
O'Sullivan's father, meanwhile, said in the documentary that he blames himself for much of his son's struggles. "I knew what he was going through," he said. "I've shared all his snooker tournaments, in his bad times and good times, I've been on the phone to him, in prison.
"And I've heard the anxiety in him, just totally collapsing on the phone. I used to put the phone down, totally in bits. A lot of that was my fault. I blame myself for that, going to prison, it wasn't good for him. And he'd say he'd had enough, he wanted to put his cue down, done.
"I'd jack him up, I'd go 'come on, what's up with ya? Stick around for a little while longer mate. Because it's like a visit for me. I can watch you on the tele and it's nice to see ya. I said 'win or lose, I watch you and it's fantastic. And if you win it's even better'."
Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything is available exclusively in cinemas across UK & Ireland on November 21 and launches on Prime Video on November 23.
