Jimmy White
Benutzer:Bill da Flute, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped

Jimmy White, the snooker whirlwind who tantalised fans with six world final heartbreakers, faces a fresh shot at glory this Boxing Day – but only after gambling away millions and draining a £35,000 bank account on crack in a dark spiral he now calls pure evil.

At 63, the man who never quite sealed the Crucible crown returns to Derby's baize for the British Seniors Open, taking on old rival Ken Doherty in a quarter-final that stirs memories of his glory days. Yet behind the cues and crowds lies a tale of addiction's brutal toll, a defiant romance and health battles that nearly broke him.​

Jimmy White Net Worth: How Gambling and Crack Nearly Wiped Out His Millions

White's cue has carved a 46-year career studded with £5.1 million in prize money, per CueTracker, pushing his net worth to an estimated £6.7 million according to Celebrity Net Worth. That fortune, however, masks a chaotic past where vices devoured his earnings.

On the 2021 Anything Goes podcast, he laid bare the scale: '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.'​

Drugs hit even harder. In Louis Theroux's Gods of Snooker documentary, White recounted cocaine's grip turning lethal: '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 I drained that on crack.'

Those confessions paint a vivid human cost: practice sessions abandoned, family ties strained, and world titles slipping away as the 'Whirlwind' spun out of control. Fans watched a talent who reached six Crucible finals – losing them all to foes like Stephen Hendry – undermined by demons off the table.

Today, sobriety shields what's left, but the losses linger as a stark warning for any high-stakes earner.​

The British Seniors Open at Vaillant Live marks Derby's first senior major since 1993, broadcast on Channel 5 from 26 December. White meets Doherty in the last eight, joined by stars like Alfie Burden, Matthew Stevens and Joe Perry. Semi-finals follow on 27 December, final on the 28th – a lifeline for a legend rebuilding amid the roar.​

Jimmy White Net Worth Steady Thanks to 23-Year Age-Gap Love and ADHD Breakthrough

White's anchor now is Jade Slusarczyk, the 39-year-old former Miss Blackpool and TV presenter he met at a 2018 snooker event in her hometown. Their 23-year age gap? No barrier.

To The Sun, he gushed: '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.'​

That stability follows other blows. This year on Stephen Hendry's Cue Tips podcast, White disclosed his ADHD diagnosis from two years prior: 'I'm gonna give you an exclusive. I got diagnosed with ADHD about two years ago. I've had to work. With ADHD you think about 15 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.'

He linked it to Crucible chokes: '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.'​

Nearly three decades earlier came testicular cancer, caught early via a lump that led to surgery removing one testicle. To The Guardian, he shared the terror: 'I discovered I had testicular cancer after finding a lump. It turned out to be two malignant growths and the doctor told me I would have to have the testicle removed. I was so terrified of dying that I didn't even want to tell my wife, Maureen. Luckily I caught it early enough. I even managed to produce a son - my fifth child - which is a miracle, really.'​

White's story resonates beyond snooker: a cautionary arc from squandered riches to redemption, where net worth endures not just from pots and breaks, but grit against the odds. As he chalks up in Derby, eyes will track if the old magic – tempered by hard-won lessons – can still dazzle.

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