Ronnie O’Sullivan and David Beckham reveal their secret bromance… including how they bonded over cups of tea, frames of snooker and trips to Manchester

• Beckham attended the premiere of snooker star O’Sullivan’s new documentary
• O’Sullivan also opened up on his mental health battles and his future in snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan is more comfortable around red balls than red carpets. ‘If I’d have looked at the contract and it said you’ve got to do a premiere, I’d have probably gone, ‘That’s me out,’ says the seven-time world snooker champion. ‘It’s not my sort of thing. I am not very good with people being nice to me.’

Tonight in London’s West End, there are plenty of people being just that – and no one more so than David Beckham. The former England captain happens to be the executive director of O’Sullivan’s compelling new Amazon Prime documentary, The Edge of Everything. 

And, as they share a stage together for a Q&A following an exclusive screening of the film at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, we learn that Beckham is one of the Rocket’s biggest fans.

‘When I wasn’t playing football, I was playing snooker,’ says Beckham, who is the same age as O’Sullivan and grew up close to the snooker star’s Chigwell home. ‘I was always a fan of Ronnie and I was able to spend a little time with him over the years.

‘One of my favourite nights as a Manchester United player was when we’d played in London, we went out for a couple of beers and I ended up back at Ronnie’s house. His mum was making a cup of tea for us and we had a few frames. That was one of my favourite nights because I got to spend a few hours with Ronnie and got to know him.’

Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed he went nights out with former football star David Beckham

Stars including legendary guitarist Ronnie Wood and Lionesss star Alessia Russo attended the premiere of O’Sullivan’s documentary on Tuesday

The seven-time world champion poses for photos with his fiancee Laila Rouass at the premiere of his new documentary ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything’

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-fufI8Y6h7I%3Frel%3D0

It turns out that night was not a one-off. Sitting with Mail Sport in a seventh-floor suite of a five-star Leicester Square hotel, O’Sullivan shares his own story about his secret bromance with Beckham. ‘We met each other in Charlie Chan’s (the Walthamstow nightclub) and we were just chatting away,’ he recalls.

‘He said, ‘Come up to Manchester’, so I went up there and stayed with him for two or three days. The fame was off the scale. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I’m not really cut out for that sort of thing. I run for the exit.’

He cannot run for the exit tonight, however. O’Sullivan is the star of the show and he has attracted quite a crowd, including Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who features in his film.

Beckham – whose production company Studio 99 made the documentary – is joined by his ex-England team-mates Alan Shearer and Ian Wright. Lioness Alessia Russo is also here, as are England rugby stars Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi. From snooker, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Judd Trump are all in attendance.

‘F****** crazy, innit?’ O’Sullivan says to Hendry as he surveys the great and the good who have gathered here just for him.

Sam Blair, the documentary’s director, is also mingling with guests in the room. ‘Ronnie was an absolute dream to work with,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I don’t know if anyone else could do what Ronnie has. Not only how open he was, but performing miracles on camera. It was mind-boggling.’

The miracle Blair refers to was O’Sullivan being able to win his record-equalling seventh world title at the Crucible last year, even though he had cameras in his dressing room and was mic’d up during matches. For O’Sullivan, though, the extra intrusion was merely motivation to produce a fairytale finish for the film.

‘Once I’d let the cameras in, I wasn’t going to crumble and give a half-hearted display,’ he says. ‘I knew I had to give 100 per cent because I knew I was going to have to watch it back and I didn’t want to defraud the public. 

Former Arsenal star Ian Wright rocked a casual look for the documentary premiere

Beckham’s production company Studio 99 made the documentary, produced by Sam Blair (L)

O’Sullivan has questioned whether he has it in him to win an eighth world snooker title

‘It made me win that World Championship. I don’t think I would have won it without having that sort of pressure on me to perform.’

That victory, though, came at a cost. One of the most powerful parts of the documentary is when O’Sullivan appears to be on the verge of a panic attack in his dressing room on the second day of the final against Trump. ‘I feel like I want to cry,’ he tells his psychiatrist, Dr Steve Peters. ‘I feel like I don’t want to face it.’

Reflecting on that moment now, O’Sullivan says: ‘I got stage fright and I’ve only ever had that twice at the Crucible. The first time was the final session of my first final against John Higgins. It’s quite scary.’

The Edge of Everything, then, is not a comfortable watch for O’Sullivan. As well as his Crucible meltdown, it covers his dad’s life sentence for murder and his own problems with drink and drugs.

‘It wasn’t a great experience watching it back for the first time,’ he says. ‘It was quite harrowing. It really affected me. I phoned up Sam and said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to play snooker anymore mate. I’m not sure I like what I see. I could have a much nicer life’.

‘Visually, you could see I was going through it a lot of times. I had a really special, close relationship with my dad. So for him to not be there, I just thought half of me had been sliced out and taken away. It was just horrible.’

O’Sullivan insists he has now come to terms with what he watched and reckons he could play on for another 10 years, although ‘five would probably be enough’. While he pulled out of last week’s Champion of Champions event in Bolton because he felt ‘drained and stressed’, he will return to action at the UK Championship in York, which starts this weekend.

In the new documentary, O’Sullivan details his dad’s parting message as he went to prison

His partner says the release of his dad (left) from prison allowed O’Sullivan to focus on snooker

O’Sullivan and his partner have addressed his ‘demons’ in his upcoming new Amazon Prime documentary

The sport’s schedule, though, is something of a hot topic at present, with World Snooker at war with stars for trying to skip tour tournaments to play in mega-money exhibitions in China.

‘If I can’t go and do what I need to do, which is play a lot in China, I won’t ever play again,’ says a resolute Rocket. ‘We’re at a kind of crossroads now.’

Next year, though, all roads will lead back to the Crucible – the scene of such astonishing footage in the documentary. But, having just been reminded of torture he went through to claim his seventh world title, O’Sullivan questions whether he has what it takes to dig deep and win No8.

‘I’m sure I’ll pitch up and play again,’ he adds. ‘But whether I’ve got another one in me, I don’t think I have, if I’m being brutally honest with you. I don’t think I’ve got another one in me.

‘I don’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze. But I thought that in 2011 and I’ve won a few since then. It’s strange how things can turn out.’

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