RONNIE O’SULLIVAN says moving to Dubai, limiting his social network and clearing out his phone apps has offered him a “clean start”.
The Rocket quit the UK this summer after getting married to actress Laila Rouass and relocated to the UAE, having considered a permanent switch to Spain.
The seven-time world snooker champion – who turns 50 next month – has no social media, messaging, news apps or even a web browser on his brand new mobile.
And having recently changed his number, only a select group of friends and family are able to contact him directly.
O’Sullivan told The Sunday Times: “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.”
Explaining his decision to sell up and leave his Essex home, O’Sullivan said: “So 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.
“I just find it all a bit too hectic. I couldn’t get anything done there.
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“I work a lot in the Middle East and China, and the jetlag, I could never get on top of it. That was a struggle.
“We’re not there for a bouji sort of lifestyle. I just like the simplicity of it there, the weather’s great.”
O’Sullivan – who will compete this week at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in Saudi Arabia – says his wedding to Rouass in June was lowkey and he had no best man by his side.
The baize legend only told the world about it when he posted a photo of the pair on the steps of St George’s Town Hall in Shadwell, East London.
The world No.5 said: “I didn’t actually have anyone there.
“I mean, we had Laila’s sisters. But we didn’t want nothing big. I’m just not into all that stuff. I f***ing hate being the host – I can’t stand it.”
