Queens of the Crucible: Why snooker WAGs are a quietly chic cohort – and the Queen Bee is an actress who played a footballer’s wife on TV

The world of sporting WAGs is all about high octane glamour, women who are celebrities in their own right – think Maya Jama and Perrie Edwards – and even royalty.

Snooker, it’s fair to say, does not quite have the same cachet as Meghan Markle wafting around a polo field in California.

The sport conjures up a fug of cigarette smoke and beer-swilling fans for those who haven’t been paying close attention.

However, the wives and girlfriends supporting the players at The Snooker World Championship, which kicks off this weekend, are a quietly chic cohort.

The Queen Bee is undoubtedly ex Footballers Wives star Laila Rouass, partner of ‘The Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Making her debut will be Shawney Demuyter – who has been with ‘Belgian Bullet’ Luca Brecel since last year.

Meanwhile, Northern Irish pro Mark Allen recently tied the knot with Sarah Herald – who works at a law firm – in Las Vegas.

Victoria Beckham famously declared that she had very little interest in football, but that’s not the case for many of the Crucible’s power couples.

Ben Woollaston found love with Belarus-born Tatiana – who is now a snooker referee, and is qualified to coach the sport.

Elsewhere, Michaela Tabb, the wife of four-time world champ, Scotsman Ross McInnes – is nearly as widely recognised for her striking looks as she is for being one of the first female referees.

LAILA ROUASS 

Wife to the ‘bad boy of snooker’, Laila Rouass, 54, has been with Ronnie O’Sullivan, 49, for 13 years. 

In June, the couple tied the knot in an intimate London ceremony – after years of an on-off romance that saw them split several times; and got married just ten months after announcing they had ended their relationship. 

Now, the couple have relocated to Dubai for a ‘fresh start’, selling off their Essex home to focus on his beloved sport. 

In Dubai, the seven-time world champion has cut off social media completely, and his phone has no messaging apps, news apps, or even a web browser. Only a handful of friends and family can reach him directly.

He told The Sunday Times: ‘I wish I’d done it before, I might do it every six months. I’m not looking to progress my career through networking and that sort of thing. I’ve got my friends and that’s enough. The phone doesn’t really add to my life. So it’s quite nice, really.’

Laila has also recently deleted her Instagram accounts, after revealing last month that she has been diagnosed with an ‘incurable condition’ that has left her feeling ‘broken’.

The Footballers’ Wives star who did not disclose the type of illness she has, did confirm it is not life-threatening, but has ‘tested her in ways she never imagined’.

Speaking about her biggest challenge to date, the actress wrote in one of her final posts before deleting her account: ‘I have something to tell you. I’ve recently been diagnosed with an incurable condition – one that’s tested me in ways I never imagined.

‘It’s not life-threatening, but losing a bit of control over my body has humbled me… and, at times, broken me open.’

And the TV star explained that her treatment for the mystery illness has prompted her to stage a social media silence.

It is the seven-time World Snooker Champion’s first trip down the aisle, but Laila previously married Abdeslam Rouass in 1990.

The exes divorced in 2003, and he was later jailed for fraud.

Meanwhile, Laila’s old show, Footballers’ Wives is reportedly set to return for a reboot, 20 years after the original series of the beloved 00s show hit screens.

The programme ran for five seasons from 2002 to 2006, comprising 42 episodes and a carousel of glamorous stars seizing dramatic roles amid absurd storylines.

The cast included Susie Amy as Gary’s on-screen wife Chardonnay, Zoe Lucker, Cristian Solimeno, Katherine Monaghan, Nathan Constance and EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth.

SARAH HERALD 

Northern Irish pro Mark Allen has had a tumultuous past, which includes a custody battle with his ex – fellow professional Reanne Evans – and having to declare himself bankrupt.

However, now the 40-year-old has found love with Sarah Herald – and the couple tied the knot in Vegas, at the famous ‘Little White Chapel’ in June.

Announcing their engagement, Sarah flashed her gorgeous ring in an Instagram post from March last year.

‘Does this ring make me look engaged????’ she penned. ‘The easiest YES ever – even if I did forget to say it.’

Little is known about her private life, but according to LinkedIn, Sarah – who is understood to have been with Mark since 2023 –  is a Personal Assistant at Law Firm Fieldfisher, and a Trustee at the Mark Allen Foundation, a charity which supports local communities in Antrim, as of November 2024.

In September, Mark also supported his ‘amazing wife’ as she completed the Belfast City Half Marathon.

SHAWNEY DEMUYTER

Luca Brecel, 31, is understood to have been dating Shawney Demuyter since early 2025 – and the couple are already ready for ‘forever’ after getting engaged in September.

In their short time together, they have shared many loved up photos at luxury vacations. 

Not much is publicly known about her life, other than her being from Belgium – and often featuring on Luca’s Instagram Stories.

MICHAELA TABB

A former pro herself, it’s no wonder Michaela Tabb, 58, and four-time world champ Ross McInnes, 71, found love in the snooker world. 

The Scottish sports star – who once worked as an Anne Summers assistant – is widely recognised for her trailblazing achievements for female players and referees in the game, and was, at a number of tournaments, the first woman to referee the event.

In 2010, Michaela revealed that she started playing because she was ‘dating a guy who took me along to his local and there were two pool tables in it and everybody there played pool so I started there’.

‘I’m one of these people who can be intense and I have to be the best that I can be so I wasn’t one to sit and watch, I wanted to get involved,’ she told Snooker Island.

‘And then my next boyfriend who is now my husband Ross McInnes is a professional pool player, and he was invited to play in a tournament which was 9 ball pool and he recommended that I could be a referee because they didn’t have many in Scotland. You know how in a league match you all have to ref each other’s games?

‘Well I tended to be the one who did all the reffing so he spotted that, and I sent my CV and they invited me to do one event in Glasgow and I did it.’

The couple got married in 2002 and are understood to reside in Scotland with their two sons – Morgan and Preston – both of whom play competitive pool.

Michael and Ross also run an organisation called Blackball Tables, which helps with providing places with pool equipment, and On Cue World, a store. 

VIKKI SELBY 

Vikki – who is married to four-time world champ Mark Selby, 42 – is also familiar in the world of snooker, having competed in tournaments in the early 2000s.

As reported by The Sun, she and Mark met at the World Pool Championship in 2006, and just a few years later – after a romantic proposal on the Venice Grand Canal – the couple tied the knot in Mexico, in 2011.

They share a daughter, Sofia, together – and Mark has credited Vikki for helping him through his ongoing battle with depression. 

In 2023, Mark also revealed his wife’s health struggles in an interview following a tense snooker World Championship final. 

In an emotional chat after his defeat by Belgian player Luca Brecel, he told BBC broadcaster Hazel Irvine that ‘health’s more important’ than snooker, detailing his own struggles with depression and health fears for Vikki. 

After his victory, Luca used his acceptance speech to also pay tribute to Mark and his wife, saying: ‘I just want to say stay strong because I’ve heard some news and I don’t know if I should say it but I just wanted to say stay strong Vikki. 

Speaking to Metro in 2024, he then shared that Vikki had been suffering with breast cancer – and, around the same time, the couple had lost a close friend to the disease.

‘With Vikki’s treatments and scans coming up you’re obviously always a bit nervous,’ he remarked. 

‘She’s good, she had a mammogram and ultrasound a few weeks ago and that all looked good. They gave her an MRI as well and we’re waiting on the results of that, but they were saying the mammogram and ultrasound were fine.

‘Fingers crossed that comes back ok and then that’s another year until we get a scan again, but we’re still waiting so obviously it’s still a tricky time.

‘She’s been stronger than me throughout it, for sure. When it was first announced I was completely blown apart. Obviously with how my mental health was before anyway, that multiplied it. She’s been the one supporting me! It should be the other way round, but people say that, it always seems to be the person going through it that’s the strongest.’

Mark said that Vikki caught her diagnosis all because of a dear friend, Nina, that had passed away.

‘Nina had it a few years ago,’ he told the outlet. ‘She got diagnosed with breast cancer, had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, got the all clear but it came back and had spread and she sadly passed away, bless her.

‘It was because of that Vikki started checking and it was in the January just after the English Open when I played Luca. She found it and told me then. It was carnage.’

He admitted that when Vikki was going through radiotherapy, he was ‘playing in the Worlds’ – but didn’t really care about winning, as being beaten would mean he could accompany her to appointments. 

However, his wife wanted him to carry on playing. 

TATIANA WOOLLASTON

English player Ben, 38, has been married to Belarusian referee Tatiana, 39, since 2011. 

The pair met at the 2010 Paul Hunter Classic and just ten months later, tied the knot in her hometown of Pinsk. 

They now live in Leicester with their two sons and Tatiana is also qualified as a snooker coach. 

And according to WalesOnline, the mother-of-two – who studied finance, banking and credit at the Belarus State Economic University – balances it all with a day job as a merchandiser for Next.

‘That’s a surprise for people, that I’ve got a full-time job,’ she told the outlet.

‘Refereeing is my hobby. It’s [Next] a great company to work for and they’re very supportive of my refereeing career.’

She shared that she first fell in love with snooker after watching it on TV as a child. 

‘It was back when there were just five or six events a year,’ Tatiana recalled.

‘Every time an event finished, it was like, “Oh my god, it’s three or four months until the next one!” Me and my dad never missed a match.’