Snooker ace Stephen Hendry opens up on 'hell' of leaving wife for woman 20 years her younger

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Snooker legend Stephen Hendry today tells of his guilt over leaving his wife for a woman 20 years his junior.

The seven-times World Champion reveals how he fell for Lauren Thundow at snooker events, where she sold merchandise.

He also says telling his sons about the split made him feel like the “worst person in the world”.

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Driving back from a shopping trip, my wife Mandy asks me what’s wrong. She assumes it’s money-related. I tell her it isn’t. Then she tells me to stop the car, saying that we’re not going an inch further until I tell her what’s going on.

So I do. I tell her that I have feelings for someone else. She is shocked and devastated. It’s the last thing she expected me to say. She knows me well enough to know that other women have never been my thing.

We drive home in a fog of bewilderment but we don’t tell the children. There are tears and conversations late into the evening. Mandy informs me she wants me to move out until we’ve sorted things.

I stay with friends and family while Mandy and I attempt to patch up our marriage. We agree to give it another go. I’m riddled with guilt about the whole thing but I’m also in love with someone else.

I first met Lauren when she was selling merchandise after a Legends snooker exhibition. She’s attractive and we smile at each other but I think nothing of it. Gradually, we start to say, “Hi”, and share a bit of small talk.

I would never be one to go striding over to any woman who caught my eye – after all, I’m the person who got to know my wife’s parents before I plucked up the courage to talk to her.

As time goes on, we chat more often. It’s becoming clear we have a connection. The Legends events travel to each venue with the same support staff. Over the next few months Lauren and I become friendly.

After a while we realise we’re falling in love. That’s very unsettling. I am married to the woman I’ve been with for almost 30 years. We have two amazing boys and a great lifestyle.

Lauren is single and 20 years younger than me. I have no wish to hurt Mandy. Yet I can’t help the way I’m feeling and I’m beginning to wonder whether my marriage is over. It’s a very confusing and troubling sensation.

Trying to make our marriage work is the right thing to do for the family. In the summer of 2013 we take a holiday to Portugal, and although we try to have a good time the issue of our marriage is never far from the surface.

There are more tears and recriminations, and I realise Mandy can never wholly trust me again. I completely understand.

Our attempt to patch things up fails and there is acknowledgement that the marriage is over. Before I move out again, Mandy tells me that I must inform the boys.

This is the hardest thing I have ever done and will probably ever have to do. I try to be as gentle as possible, telling them I have feelings for someone else.

But however you try to explain things to children, there is going to be upset and hurt. Carter is upset; Blaine becomes very quiet, just like I did when I found out about my parents splitting up.

It’s horrible, and I feel like the worst person in the world. Before I leave I tell a couple of friends.

They can’t believe I’ve admitted it. “You could have a bit of fun on the side and just not say anything,” they tell me. “It would’ve petered out and no one would’ve been the wiser.”

I know I can’t be this way. I couldn’t live with the guilt. Besides, the feelings I have for Lauren aren’t going to just disappear. They’re too strong, and she feels the same way.

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I tell Mandy that I will be leaving not just Auchterarder [where they lived in Perthshire] but Scotland altogether. I need some time and space to get my head together, and make sure that what I’m doing is the right thing.

The company now looking after my financial affairs has offered me the use of a flat in Liverpool for a few months. So with my belongings in the back of my car, I head off to Liverpool in January 2014.

For two months I’m a virtual recluse. I just sit and think about what’s happened. I know I’ve done the right thing – I also know it’s the hardest decision of my life and will have all sorts of repercussions.

I worry about the relationship I’ll have with my boys in future, I hope they will understand one day that such things happen and while this doesn’t make it right, they aren’t alone.

It’s a weird situation, a seven-times World Champion driving around in his car piled up with his possessions and virtually homeless.

Mandy serves divorce papers. Seeing them in black and white is particularly depressing, but now I know there is no turning back.

Financially speaking, I haven’t ended my career in the best shape and there are debts, as well as what is to come by way of a divorce settlement to Mandy.

Lauren and I agree that I should find a flat by myself at first.

I eventually find a flat close to the village of Sunningdale, Berkshire. It’s small, but comfortably furnished.

The three years between my leaving and the divorce itself are the most stressful of my life. The legal bill from the divorce comes to a hefty six-figure sum. Mandy will continue to live in the house in Scotland with the boys.

Four years on, Lauren and I are still together. We enjoy the same things and we’re happy.

If I have regrets it’s around my sons. There is no doubt they were affected by the divorce, Carter more than Blaine, I think.

When I see them they seem fine, but it’s hard to know how they’re really feeling. I’m very proud of them. They’re amazing, polite and well-mannered boys.

Mandy is a very good mother to them and I know they’re happy at home but I’m sorry I don’t see them as often as I’d like as they grow up. I hope in the future I’ll have a closer relationship with them both.

  • Me and The Table: My Autobiography by Stephen Hendry is out on Thursday published by John Blake.

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