Shaun Murphy has been awarded an OBE in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours for services to snooker and charity.
The 2005 World Champion turned professional in 1998 and has enjoyed a glittering career, winning 13 ranking titles and completing snooker’s Triple Crown by capturing all three of the sport’s most prestigious events.
Away from the baize, Murphy has devoted much of his time to charity, including work with orphanages in Harare in 2006, being a patron of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital from 2015 and recently becoming a patron of the Rainbows Children’s Hospice in Leicestershire.
The Magician was overwhelmed when he originally received the news and is still processing the fact he has received the honour.
“It is a strange feeling when the letter hits the post box. It says “On His Majesty’s Service” on it. I’m either going to prison or I don’t know what! I wasn’t expecting it at all. Opening the letter, I was actually shanking. I was thinking if it could be real or if it was a wind up. For one reason or another it went to our old address so postal redirection kicked in. It came to our house the day the World Championship ended. You had to reply and accept it the day after. Thankfully you could do that via email. I did and said I’d be very grateful to accept,” said 43-year-old Murphy.
“I’m incredibly honoured to receive it. As much as it is for me, I think for my family as well. I have been sworn to secrecy but I did tell my mum and swore her to secrecy as well. I think it is the happiest I’ve ever heard her. It was an incredible moment to tell her and share that information.”
Reflecting on the news, it is the recognition of his charity work which really touched Murphy, who admits he has now been motivated to go further and is currently seeking to start up his own foundation.
“It is really nice that it has been for my services to snooker, which has been my life. However, to have the charity work recognised almost means more. Snooker is something I chose to do and wanted to do for myself. The charity work I’ve been involved in for many years has nothing to do with me and to have that recognised is very rewarding. It has inspired me to go even harder in the future. You just try to do what you can for who you can when you have the time. You don’t ask for publicity for these things. You aren’t looking for it for those reasons, so to receive the reward for that is extremely humbling.
“I’ve always felt that has been my responsibility as an ambassador for snooker, to try and make it a better space when I leave it than it was when I found it. Then in terms of my platform elsewhere I wanted to help others. Most of that has been centred around young people. It is something we are very keen on doing going into the future. We are just in the final stages of creating the Shaun Murphy Foundation, which I’m still finding hard saying!
“We are giving grants to young people in sport or in the arts. We are looking to help kids out from a creativity point of view and a sporting one. That is largely still paperwork on a desk at the moment, but it has already started supporting some youth football teams, the junior section at my old golf club in Wellingborough and a few other things. Jo and I were very lucky to be able to chase our dreams. She sacrificed a lot to become a performer and a pianist and I was the same with snooker. We were able to do it with the support of our families, friends and loved ones. Many people aren’t in that position and that is hopefully where the foundation will step in. There are many people with immense talent who slip through the net.”
