SHAUN MURPHY says he remains estranged from his father and regrets that their relationship has become irreparable.
Should the Magician, 42, win a over the next three weeks, it is “upsetting”; that his dad Tony, a former pro and high-flying Mercedes-Benz executive, will not be in his corner.
Tony played a pivotal role in his son’s upbringing until he split from his wife when was a teenager – but the pair have not spoken for many years.
Speaking exclusively to SunSport, Murphy – who has two children – said he bears no malice or ill-feeling towards his dad.
But Murphy, who is also a topkeynote speaker, admitted: “It’s very, very disappointing and very upsetting how that has worked itself out.
“As a father now myself, I see the breakdown over that relationship through totally different lenses and from a different perspective than I ever did.
“We haven’t spoken properly for a long, long time.
“I always thought that as the son, when I chose and wanted to go back through the door of reconciliation with my father, that that door would be open to me.
“I always assumed as the son that opportunity would be there.
“It turns out I was wrong. It takes two to tango. You know, I have offered him an olive branch several times. Including very recently.
“And somehow he has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
“You’d think that that man that raised me and I grew up with... well, actually I don’t know him at all.”
Murphy continued: “He’s not the man I thought he was. I wish no malice at all. I wish him no ill whatsoever.
“But he doesn’t have a relationship with me. Nor my brother and sister, their families, their children…
“He has met my son once when he was one year old. He has never met my daughter and it doesn’t look like he will.
“He’s the only one who’s missed out in that situation. I feel for him. I wish it was different but it’s not.”;
Murphy grew up in the Northamptonshire village of Irthlingborough and lived a comfortable life until the 1987 Black Monday financial crash.
One minute “we had a nice life, a nice house, two holidays a year, two new on the drive”; and then the “bank took everything away”;.
The family came close to losing everything, including their home, until the charity of neighbours saved them from becoming homeless, giving them a property at a discounted rent rate.
It was years later that Murphy managed to secure a five-year £5,000-a-year commercial deal with local firm Dr Martens that was beneficial to his snooker progression.
Yet until then, the 2005 world snooker champion and his family “lived by the seat of our pants for years”;.
He said: “Carboot, jungle sales, house clearances. I watch Bargain Hunt now on TV and I think: ‘That was my life. I go into an antique fair and it’s like being ten again.’”;
