Ronnie O’Sullivan is married. He wed actress Laila Rouass on June 27, 2025, at St George’s Town Hall in Shadwell, east London. O’Sullivan was 49, a seven-time world champion, and had never been married before.
Three months before the ceremony, Laila attended the Mariposa Ball in London alone. She and O’Sullivan had separated the previous September and their home in Chigwell, Essex, was listed for sale. When a journalist asked about her love life that evening, she said: “I am going to keep that under wraps for now until there is something to speak about.” By the end of June, she was Mrs O’Sullivan.
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Who Is Laila Rouass?
Laila Rouass was born on June 22, 1971, in Stepney, east London. Her father is Moroccan and her mother is Indian. She grew up in Tower Hamlets as the eldest of seven siblings.
She started her career in India in the 1990s as a VJ on Channel V before returning to the UK and moving into acting. British audiences know her best as Amber Gates in ITV’s Footballers’ Wives, the role she played from 2004 to 2006. In 2009, she competed on Strictly Come Dancing Series 7 alongside professional dancer Anton Du Beke and finished fourth. She later played Sahira Shah in BBC’s Holby City from 2011 to 2012 and returned for a further stint in 2021. She joined EastEnders in July 2024 as Ayesha Siddhu.
She has a daughter, Inez, born in February 2007. Inez’s father is Nasir Khan, a London businessman who received a nine-year prison sentence in 2011 for his involvement in a £250 million VAT fraud conspiracy.
In August 2017, while on holiday in Barcelona with Inez, then aged 10, Laila was caught in the middle of the ISIS attack on Las Ramblas. A van drove into crowds of pedestrians, killing 13 people. She and Inez hid in a restaurant freezer until it was safe to leave. Laila posted updates from inside.
Before O’Sullivan, she had one legal marriage, to Abdeslam Rouass. They wed in 1990 and divorced in 2003; he was later imprisoned for fraud. Her marriage to O’Sullivan is her second and his first.
The Wedding in June 2025
The ceremony at St George’s Town Hall was small. Laila wore a cream dress and black cowboy boots. O’Sullivan came in a navy shirt with no tie. Laila’s sisters attended; his parents did not, and there was no best man.
He posted a photograph on Instagram later that day: “We finally made it official!! Mr and Mrs O’Sullivan.”
He had been engaged since 2013 and had three children from two previous relationships, but had never married.
How Long Were Ronnie O’Sullivan and Laila Rouass Together?
They first met in 2012. Laila was house hunting in Essex when she was shown around O’Sullivan’s property by his father, Ronald O’Sullivan Sr, who then passed on her details through a mutual estate agent friend. Laila later recalled the meeting: “It happened by accident. I was shown around Ronnie’s house by his father, who told his son about meeting me. Ronnie called the estate agent, a friend of mine, and asked me out via her.”
O’Sullivan proposed the following year with a £55,000 ring. When asked in the years that followed why they had not yet married, he said: “If something’s not broke, why fix it? I love her, I love her company, I admire her.”
Their relationship broke down twice before they reached a registry office.
Relationship timeline
- 2012 — Started dating
- 2013 — O’Sullivan proposed with a £55,000 ring
- February 2022 — First split; Laila posted publicly: “After nearly ten years of love and memories, Ronnie and I have parted ways.”
- May 2022 — Reconciled; Laila confirmed on ITV’s Loose Women
- September 2024 — Second split; their Chigwell home listed for sale
- January 2025 — Back together, roughly four months after separating
- June 27, 2025 — Married at St George’s Town Hall, Shadwell
Does Ronnie O’Sullivan Have Children?
O’Sullivan has three children from two previous relationships.
| Child | Born | Mother |
|---|---|---|
| Taylor-Anne Magnus | 1996 | Sally Magnus |
| Lily | 2006 | Jo Langley |
| Ronnie Jr | 2007 | Jo Langley |
He met Jo Langley at Narcotics Anonymous. His eldest daughter, Taylor-Anne, has spoken publicly about their strained relationship. She told The Sun that O’Sullivan had not been part of her life and that she would not want someone like that around her or her child. He became a grandfather in October 2018 when Taylor-Anne gave birth to a daughter, Zarah-Ann.
Laila’s daughter Inez, now 18, is not his biological child.
Why Did Ronnie O’Sullivan Move to Dubai?
After the wedding, O’Sullivan sold the couple’s £2 million home in Chigwell, Essex. Laila reportedly gave him a choice between Spain and Dubai. Sheffield, where he had been considering moving for better snooker practice facilities, was not one of the options she gave him.
He settled on Dubai because of its proximity to Saudi Arabia, where he runs a snooker academy, and to China, where much of his annual tournament schedule falls. After the move, he deleted social media, messaging apps and his browser from his phone, changed his number, and cut access to a small circle of family and close friends.
What Happened to Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Father?
Ronald O’Sullivan Sr was convicted of murder in 1992, when Ronnie was 16. His father had stabbed Bruce Bryan, a driver for Charlie Kray, during a fight at a Chelsea nightclub on the King’s Road. The sentence was life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years. He was released in 2010.
Before being taken down, O’Sullivan Sr passed a message to his son: “Tell my boy to win.”
Ronnie’s mother, Maria, was also imprisoned around the same time for tax evasion, leaving him responsible for his eight-year-old sister Danielle.
O’Sullivan spent much of his twenties battling drug and alcohol addiction. He has described going out every day and every night for roughly six years, and hating himself by the end of it. He was stripped of his 1998 Irish Masters title after testing positive for cannabis and spent multiple spells at the Priory rehabilitation clinic. He got clean through Narcotics Anonymous, and long-distance running became what he has since described as his anchor. Work with sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters helped him rebuild. By the time his father was released in 2010, O’Sullivan, known by then as The Rocket, had already won three World Championships.
He wrote about that period in his 2023 autobiography Unbreakable and in the Amazon Prime documentary The Edge of Everything, also from that year. In the 2016 New Year Honours, he received an OBE for services to snooker, collecting it at Buckingham Palace with Laila beside him.
On Valentine’s Day 2026, Laila posted on Instagram: “My first Valentine as Mrs O’Sullivan. Happy Love Day to my sweet, generous and hot husband Ronnie O’Sullivan.”
At the 2026 World Open, he made the highest break in professional snooker history, a 16-red clearance of 153. He had already become the first professional to score 1,300 career centuries, at the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
He turned 50 in January. He has a wife.
