Former world champion Murphy smoothly reached the final with a stunning 147 maximum break during his semi-final match against Mark Allen, calling it “one of the best moments” of his career. He carried that momentum forward to lift the Masters trophy once more, after taking an early 6-2 lead over Wilson on Sunday afternoon.
Murphy kept his composure even when his lead was reduced to 8-7, ending his 10-year wait to win a Triple Crown event. After the match, Murphy said: “I can’t believe it – I’m in shock. If I’m totally honest I thought these days were gone. When I lost to Mark Selby in 2021 [in the world final] at the Crucible, I thought my days in the business end of these events had gone.
“But everyone knows I’ve teamed up with Peter Ebdon and he’s helped me rediscover that self-belief, he’s helped remind me I used to be quite good at this. There’s still a bit of life in the old dog yet. I must pay tribute to Kyren – he is a great world champion. He really took it to me and there was a stage a few frames ago when it was panic stations.”
What is Shaun Murphy’s net worth?
This Master’s win has added another achievement to Murphy’s impressive career, which includes winning the 2005 World Championship and 11 other ranking titles. As of 2025, his net worth is estimated to be around £5.3 million.
His net worth grew by a healthy £350,000 after Sunday’s win, but Murphy’s life outside of snooker hasn’t been as celebratory recently.
Is Shaun Murphy married?
In May of last year, the snooker star separated from his wife Elaine. Despite getting married in 2016 and having two kids, Harry and Molly, together, the couple decided to end their relationship after moving to Dublin and trying hard to save their marriage.
“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 said after the split. “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 has been through divorce before, having separated from his first wife Clare in 2009. He moved to Rotherham in 2004 for love and married Clare the following year.
However, by 2007, their relationship was struggling, and a media scandal soon caused a stir in the snooker world. Murphy, who was once a devout Christian, admitted he was “completely unprepared” for fame after winning the world title and later acknowledged that he “fell foul of a couple of journalists who were looking for dirt.”
Speaking to the Guardian in 2023, he said: “They 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.”
As his marriage was falling apart, Murphy reached another world championship final against John Higgins. However, the night before the match, he was hit with a bombshell newspaper story claiming he had spent the night with an escort.
Murphy’s former manager, Brandon Parker, released a statement confirming that he had spent time with the woman but denied any infidelity, saying they did not have sex. The story also mentioned that they had first met at a religious youth group a decade earlier.
Murphy explained the details of the alleged scandal at the time, saying: “That’s not quite accurate. This girl and I had dated in our teenage years and after my split from my wife in 2008, she reconnected with me via Facebook.
“She misled me a bit and fabricated stories about her profession. It turned out she was an escort. No one was more shocked than me and it was very unsettling to see these things written about you.”
Why did Shaun Murphy have surgery?
Despite his difficult love life, Murphy has recently gained confidence and improved his form after having gastric sleeve surgery in 2022. His weight had risen to 20 stone, which left him in a “very, very bad state mentally.” He described the surgery as “life-saving.”
“The surgery that I had in May last year has changed my life from top to bottom,” he told Eurosport. “I think while I didn’t consult a doctor, if I had, I believe someone would have diagnosed me with severe depression. I was in a very, very bad mental state.
“My self-esteem was through the floor and I did not want to go out and play. 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.”
What did Shaun Murphy say about his weight loss?
The 2005 world snooker champion had stomach reduction surgery on May 10, 2022 — just eight days after Ronnie O’Sullivan won his sixth Crucible title.
Instead of choosing a temporary option — like a gastric balloon — he decided on an “extreme” and “irreversible” step.
The surgery meant that doctors “removed 80 percent of my stomach,” which Murphy says means his four-year-old daughter Molly “has a bigger stomach than me now.”
As a result of needing to eat smaller portions, Murphy has dropped from 20 stone to 15 stone. The Magician explained: “Over the years I got to the point where I hated myself.
“I was in a lot of pain. The weight was the primary cause of that problem. “I got to the point where I couldn’t run around after my kids. I became that bloke who couldn’t bend down to tie his shoelaces.
“It was completely demoralising. I couldn’t get out of this spiral of self-loathing. “So I took a very big decision to have gastric-sleeve surgery. “It was a big, big move that some would say was too drastic but I had reached the point of no return.
“I needed to do something serious. I couldn’t stop eating and I couldn’t stop drinking. I was in a deep depression. “It might be too extreme to say it saved my life but that’s how it feels. And I wish I had done it 20 years ago.”
Before choosing the surgery, Murphy tried many ways to lose weight, including using milkshake replacements, going to Weight Watchers, Slimming World, and other help groups, as well as hypnosis and listening to podcasts.
He continued: “A lot of people out there don’t see food in the same way as alcohol or gambling but it is. I was addicted to eating.
“Mark Allen and I used to joke that we would commiserate and celebrate with Domino’s pizzas. “You can’t drink ten pints of Guinness five nights a week and have Domino’s four nights and live to tell the tale.
“There’s a history of heart disease in the family. Both my grandad and my father had a heart attack in their mid-50s. “All I can do is tip the scales in my favour. “When that addiction or dependency grabs you, it’s very hard to let go.”
“Due to the surgery, I can eat anything I want but I just can’t eat as much. I feel full immediately. “Those all-you-can-eat buffets are just a waste of time on me now because I almost get full on the smell! “My self-esteem has gone up — it’s made me a better bloke and a better snooker player.”
[Updated: 04/02/2025]
