JIMMY WHITE lived a wild life away from the snooker table – until being tamed by former Miss Blackpool Jade Slusarczyk.
The snooker legend – known affectionately as The Whirlwind – was famed for his .
, 62, won the English Amateur Championship in 1979 and turned pro a year later.
He would go on to become a six-time finalist, infamously losing on each occasion.
The 62-year-old has reached 24 ranking finals over his illustrious career, banking almost £5million in prize money.
But White has since revealed he gambled away the majority of his fortune, as well as suffering a .
Speaking to theAnything Goespodcast in 2021, White said: “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.
“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.”
White admitted in his 2014 autobiography to
He told‘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 Idrained that on crack.”;
White, who has five children from a previous relationship, began dating Jade – who is 23 years his junior – in 2018.
They met at aSnooker Shoot Out tournament in Jade’s home town of Blackpool and hit it off.
Jade told The Mirror with a laugh: “He told me he was 35 when I met him.
“I didn’t even know who he was or that he was famous.”
And White credits Jade, 39, with helping him kick the habit and stay off the booze.
The snooker star told : “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.”
Jade currently works as a walk-on girl for .
She is a regular at the broadcaster's darts events and showcases her adventures to her 9,000 Instagram followers.
I have to be medicated and all that and it's completely changed my life.
Jimmy White on his ADHD diagnosisCue Tips podcast
White recently revealed he had – and believes it played a big part in shaping his life on and off the table.
White toldStephen Hendry's Cue Tips podcast: I got diagnosed with ADHD about two years ago.
“I've had to work. With ADHD you think about fifteen 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.
“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.”
