I’m 23 years older so it is a miracle Jade still fancies me, says Jimmy White
SNOOKER ace Jimmy White credits his glamorous lover – 23 years his junior – for helping him kick drink and drugs, saying: “It’s a miracle she fancies me.”
The 59-year-old legend, star of BBC2 three-part docu-series Gods Of Snooker, which started last weekend and continues tonight, has told how he would have “drink after drink and line after line” on benders with fellow cue king Alex Higgins.
After one session, which began at a Manchester nightclub that Jimmy frequented with the Rolling Stones, he came around two days later in Jersey — barely knowing how.
But Jimmy, nicknamed the Whirlwind for his fast. attacking play, has praised promotions girl Jade Slusarczyk, 36, who he has dated for three years, for helping him quell his crazy antics.
In an exclusive interview, grandad-of-seven Jimmy told The Sun on Sunday: “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.”
He added: “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 feel normal now and can have a laugh with my mates without waking up feeling like someone’s put an axe in my head.”
Jimmy’s hell-raising years with pal and fellow snooker legend Alex
“Hurricane” Higgins form a key part of Gods Of Snooker, presenter Louis Theroux’s retelling of the game’s 1980s glory days.
It relives how stars such as Jimmy helped take the sport from working men’s clubs to box office gold, giving them rock ’n’ roll lifestyles complete with the sex and drugs.
But fame took a dark turn as Jimmy became hooked on booze and cone while partying with Higgins, who died in 2010, and fellow wildman, snooker pro Kirk Stevens.
Jimmy — who reached six World Championship finals but lost them all — told of the 1980s crack-cocaine binges he hid from long-suffering wife Maureen, who he split from 20 years ago.
He made sure he only took the class-A drug between tournaments so he did not get caught by drug testers. He explained: “I still can’t remember what year I was taking crack, but I only did it for three months, after years of cocaine abuse.
“I went to hell with crack, it’s just evil. I spent 30-odd grand on it that I had in this special account that no one knew about.
“Taking crack, it’s like you’re alive but you’re dead. You feel empty and wired at the same time.
“The only way I can explain it is that you’re close to death.
“I couldn’t tell you how much coke I did when I was addicted or how much I spent because I have no idea. I’d drink huge amounts of vodka and orange. Bottles a night, often.
“We used to go to a club in Manchester that stayed open until 8am and with the birds and the footballers would come the police and the gangsters. And then there’d be me and Higgins, the snooker players.
“One night we went to Manchester airport on the Friday and after two days of drinking it wasn’t until Sunday I realised I was in Jersey.
“All of a sudden, the fear factor comes. You’ve got to phone the wife and everyone is looking for you.
“We had some great times with the Rolling Stones. They were snooker- mad.
“They used to have a beautiful table backstage when they played and years ago it would have had drinks and ashtrays all over.
“They still have it but without the booze, because they’re all clean.
“I still see Ronnie Wood all the time and he is always playing snooker and painting. He has a really good cue action.”
Jimmy also tells how he apologised for his wild days to ex-wife Maureen and their five grown-up kids — including eldest Lauren, 40, who is four years older than girlfriend Jade.
He said: “I didn’t treat my ex right when we were married because I was selfish and messed up in the fame game. I’ve apologised and I get on with her new fella and she gets on with Jade, so everyone is cool.
“We’ve been separated for 20 years and pals for ten.”
Jimmy has not hung up his cue just yet.
In the 2020 World Seniors Championship he beat Ken Doherty to retain his title. But his focus is not what it was.
He said: “I can be playing fantastic then all of a sudden my mind wanders and I’m thinking, ‘Did I water the plants at home?’ I haven’t got the concentration.”
But Jimmy is his fittest ever.
He said: “Years ago they used to call me Edward Scissorhands because of how white I was, because of my poor diet. I would only eat when I was starving, because you forget to eat.
“But then I ballooned to 17st 9lb at one point in my forties from eating badly. But I’m as fit as a fiddle now.
“I walk a lot round Epsom Downs when I’m home in Surrey. Then I play snooker for hours, walking around the table the whole of that time.
“I eat proper food now, like porridge, and I don’t have takeaways and stuff like that.
“I’m playing better than ever but what happens when you get older is that your concentration goes.”
His wandering mind even winds up Jade.
He said: “She sometimes gets the hump because I don’t have so much patience now that I am sober.
“For example, if someone is late, I won’t wait. I’ve got some front to say that because years ago I wouldn’t have even turned up, but when you get sober it’s different.
“I also wouldn’t stand for all those reality shows Jade likes to watch. I used to watch all the soaps when I was married, but not now.
“We enjoy going on holiday to nice sunny places where she can lie in the sun. She’ll read a book while I’m on the iPad.
“I’ll probably be in the shade somewhere, putting an occasional accumulator on the football. That’s my only vice.”
But one telly show he IS tuning into is Gods Of Snooker, and he said: “I’m not scared to watch it because that part of my life — the drug-taking and the drinking — is in the past.
“Snooker has changed so much.
“Ronnie O’Sullivan, who used to like a drink, runs like 50 miles a week and everyone is all clean-cut now and in the gym.”
So what does Jimmy — who drives a Bentley with personalised number plate CUE 80Y — think of today’s stars of the green baize?
Most read in Sport
He said: “I saw some of the young Chinese players recently, but you watch them practise and they walk around staring at their phones.
“You used to be sponsored by a cigarette company and they didn’t like you if you didn’t smoke.
“They would send you 400 cigarettes every month, whether you smoked or not. It feels like a different world.”
- Gods Of Snooker is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm.