White has credited his partner with helping to keep him on the straight and narrow
White has credited his partner with helping to keep him on the straight and narrow
Snooker legend Jimmy White is back in action on Thursday afternoon as he kicks off his World Seniors Championship campaign at the Crucible Theatre.
With the World Snooker Championship wrapped up with Zhao Xintong's first ever world title, it's time for the sport's more senior figures to battle it out for glory in Sheffield. Few are more experienced than 63-year-old White, who is a record four-time winner of the senior tournament, triumphing in three of the last six years of competition.
His success at senior level comes after he suffered repeated heartbreak in his earlier career, reaching six World Snooker Championship finals but finishing runner-up on every occasion.
Nevertheless, with ten ranking event titles - including the 1984 Masters and the 1992 UK Championship - to his name, 'The Whirlwind' is known as a legend of the game.
However, it is not just his flamboyant playing style and big personality that has ensured he will be remembered by snooker fans for years to come, but his eventful personal life.
From his battles with gambling and drug addiction to his "life-changing" health diagnosis, huge net worth and glamorous younger partner, here's what you might not know about White's life away from the snooker table.
Huge net worth
Over the course of his 45-year professional career, White has unsurprisingly cashed in a large amount of prize money, with CueTracker putting the total figure at £5.1 million.
Having moved into media work in recent years, he has added to his total net worth which is now estimated to be in the region of £6.7 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Having struggled with addictions to drugs and gambling, White has previously admitted to gambling away millions of pounds over the course of his career, leading him to the point of bankruptcy,
"I gambled at least three million quid, so if I gambled three million quid I probably had to earn six or seven million to get that,' he told the Anything Goes podcast in 2021. "That's a lump, that's retirement money, so I should be more sick with that.
"But because at the time it was going so f***ing quick you don't think do you? I went bankrupt through gambling."
On his addiction to cocaine, he told Louis Theroux's documentary Gods of Snooker: "Cocaine was absolutely everywhere. It was like the devil's dandruff, but crack – it's evil.
"I tried smoking it and got completely addicted. I remember I had £35,000 in an account and I drained that on crack."
Much younger TV presenter girlfriend
Following his struggles, White - who is now sober - has credited his partner Jade Slusarczyk with helping to keep him on the straight and narrow.
A TV presenter, model and walk-on girl, Slusarczyk is a former Miss Blackpool winner and is 23 years younger than White.
They met in 2018 during a snooker tournament in her hometown and started dating, with neither bothered by their considerable age difference.
On how his relationship with the 39-year-old had helped him, White told The Sun: "It's impossible to say how much I used to drink in my wild days. It was drink after drink and line after line and I'd go missing for days. It took 15 years to get sober and I don't miss that life at all.
"Jade's helped me because she doesn't drink. I've never been so happy and I'm pleased to say my life is in a good place. I haven't got a zillion in the bank but I have my family and Jade.
"I didn't think for a minute she'd go out with me, because of the age difference. It's a miracle she fancies me. But she doesn't care about the age difference, so why should I?
"She's my girlfriend and she's fit so I'm happy. She's a beautiful girl, inside and out."
'Life changing' health diagnosis
Earlier this year, White opened up about being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), something which he says has "completely changed" his life.
Appearing on Stephen Hendry's Cue Tips podcast, the snooker legend said: "I'm gonna give you an exclusive. I got diagnosed with ADHD about two years ago.
"I've had to work. With ADHD you think about 15 things at once. So I'm now down to sort of like normal. I have to be medicated and all that and it's completely changed my life."
On how the disorder - which is characterised by symptoms of inattentiveness hyperactivity and impulsiveness - had affected him throughout his career, White added: "When you're under pressure, looking back all these things were going through my mind and all of a sudden I'm starting to miss everything.
"The pockets are closing up as I'm hitting them and the balls are getting like footballs. That for me now, looking back, if I'd known what I had I'd have been able to refocus better. That was a big thing."
The diagnosis came nearly 30 years after White was told he had testicular cancer, an ordeal which he admits left him "terrified of dying".
However, he was able to beat the disease having "caught it early enough", and he was even able to have a fifth child following successful surgery to remove one of his testicles.
He told the Guardian: “I discovered I had testicular cancer after finding a lump. It turned out to be two malignant growths and the doctor told me I would have to have the testicle removed.
"I was so terrified of dying that I didn't even want to tell my wife, Maureen. Luckily I caught it early enough. I even managed to produce a son - my fifth child - which is a miracle, really.”
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