Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan and his wife Laila Rouass are loving their new life after they moved to Dubai this summer.
Ronnie O’Sullivan says moving to Dubai, ditching social media and changing his phone number has offered him a “clean start” with his life.
The snooker legend swapped life in Essex, England, for the lush United Arab Emirates city after he and 54-year-old actress Laila Rouass’ London wedding in June.
And Ronnie – who turns 50 on December 5 – has also waved goodbye to social media, messaging, news apps, the internet on his phone, and has changed his number so only his closest family and friends can contact him.
The sportsman told The Sunday Times newspaper: “It’s sort of a clean start.
“I wish I’d done it before. I might do it every six months. I’m not looking to progress my career through networking and that sort of thing. I’ve got my friends and that’s enough. The phone doesn’t really add to my life. So it’s quite nice, really.”
He never had WhatsApp on his phone because “it was just too much messaging”, and he removed Google because “I just didn’t want to look at the news. I can’t look up anything. Has anything been going on?”
The seven-time World Snooker Championship winner has not learnt Arabic, but he thinks that is a good thing because “one of the beauties of not knowing the language is I don’t really want to talk to everyone that I come in contact with”.
Ronnie added: “I know it sounds terrible, but we just smile at each other, ‘Hello,’ and it’s good.”
And The Rocket – who has daughter Taylor-Ann Magnus, 29, from his relationship with Sally Magnus, as well as daughter Lily, 19, and 18-year-old son Ronnie Jr, from a relationship with Jo Langley – is not fussed about making pals in Dubai.
He explained: “We’re not there for a bouji sort of lifestyle. I just like the simplicity of it there, the weather’s great.”
After Ronnie and Laila’s shock London wedding in June – which came months after the couple announced their definitive separation in late 2024 – they sold their house, located on the Essex border of London.
And Ronnie said another reason for moving was because of the lack of good practice tables near where they lived in the UK – the same reason why their consideration to move to Spain was short-lived.
He explained: “I had to do a lot of trips into London, an hour and twenty minutes each way – it was a headache.
“So a lot of the time I was having to go to Sheffield for, like, a week to get some proper practice done.”
Ronnie – who operates a five-table training base called the Ronnie O’Sullivan Snooker Academy in Riyadh for international players, where he also coaches and mentors – said travelling around London took ages.
He said: “I just find it all a bit too hectic. I couldn’t get anything done there. The highlight of my day was going out to Stratford Westfield and having a cup of tea in the Carluccio’s.”
And it took Ronnie – who may move to Ireland if it does not work out in Dubai – “an hour to go and see my mum, when it should be just a four-minute journey” due to a road bridge being closed, which “isn’t going to be done for years because the council hasn’t got the money to fix it”.
Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan reveals ‘clean start’ after Dubai move and dramatic lifestyle change
