Inside Shaun Murphy’s new life with third fiancee after escort scandal | Other | Sport
Shaun Murphy is set to get married for the third time (Image: Getty)
Former snooker world champion Shaun Murphy has revealed that he has become engaged for a third time after proposing to his musician girlfriend. The 43-year-old recently got down on one knee to ask internationally acclaimed piano player and vocalist Jo Rochell to marry him, with his thrilled new fiancee sharing the news on Instagram.
Posting a photograph of the pair and displaying her new ring, she penned: «Four years ago, he booked me for gig…after many MANY ups and downs, I said ‘Yes’ to a lifetime of more.» Murphy, who famously claimed the World Championship as a qualifier in 2005, confessed that the proposal arrived later than he anticipated after his recent triumphs at the British Open and the Xi’an Grand Prix forced him to alter his plans, but described it as a «very special moment».
He said: «We went out for dinner and I had the ring in my pocket and it was all very low-key. In the end, it didn’t feel right to do it in the restaurant in front of a load of strangers, so we went home and had a drink and just did it in the privacy of our own home.
«It was a nice personal moment, and as I say, it was very special, it’s been a long time coming. We’re both really delighted, excited.»
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In August, Rochell paid tribute to her now-fiance on his birthday, writing: «Happy Birthday @shaunmurphy147. This past year hasn’t been easy, you’ve faced so many personal challenges, most of which people will never see.
«You’ve faced things head on with courage, vulnerability and humour. You make me laugh every single day – I can’t wait for the next 365 days of belly laughs.»
This marks the third engagement for ‘The Magician’, who parted ways with his second wife, Elaine, in May 2023.
The couple, who share two children, Harry and Molly, wed in 2016 and relocated to Dublin, but eventually chose to separate.
«We tried to reconcile and it will be nice to look back in years to come and know we tried absolutely everything to make our marriage work,» Murphy revealed.
«It’s amicable. We move on as friends and our whole lives now become about raising our children and protecting them from everything that people go through in life, because life’s not easy.»
Murphy formally divorced his first wife Clare in 2009.
Shaun Murphy in action. (Image: Getty Images)
Originally hailing from Essex, Murphy relocated to Rotherham in 2004 to be with her and they married the subsequent year.
Nevertheless, fractures started to emerge three years later when a tabloid expose rocked the snooker community.
Admitting he was «completely unprepared» for the media attention following his World Championship triumph, Murphy later revealed to the Guardian: «[The press] found out that, at the time, I was heavily religious.
«I’m an atheist now but back then I was deep down the rabbit hole of being a born-again Christian. Some unsavoury things were written about me which I didn’t know how to handle.»
On the eve of his second World Championship final against John Higgins, Murphy found himself in hot water when newspapers reported he had spent the night with an escort.
His then-manager, Brandon Parker, issued a statement admitting that the snooker player had spent time with the woman but denied allegations of infidelity, asserting that he did not sleep with her.
The story also suggested they had met through a religious youth group a decade earlier, but Murphy addressed the controversy and set the record straight.
«That’s not quite accurate,» he later clarified. «This girl and I had dated in our teenage years and following the break-up from my wife at the time in 2008, she reconnected with me through Facebook.
«She led me down the garden path a little and made up stories of what she did for a job. It turned out she was an escort. Nobody was more surprised than me and it was very unnerving to see these things written about you.»
Despite facing challenges in his personal life, recent years have seen Murphy experience significant improvements in his mental and physical wellbeing, following a gastric sleeve procedure in 2022.
He revealed that he was in a «very, very bad state mentally» and now attributes his life-saving transformation to a surgical procedure.
«The surgery that I had in May last year has changed my life from top to bottom,» Murphy confessed to Eurosport. «I think whilst I did not go to see a doctor, had I have done I think someone would have signed me off with complete full depression. I was in a very, very bad state mentally.
«My self-esteem was through the floor and I did not want to go out and play,» he continued. «I did not want to leave the house and that spiralled into feeling miserable and eating more. I don’t think it is too extreme to say it was life-saving for me.»
