STEPHEN Hendry has spoken out about the agony his family felt after his son was stillborn after IVF treatment.

The hugely successful snooker player reveals he got a tearful phonecall from his wife after losing at the World Championships in 2003 in a new book.

His biography, Me and the Table, is being serialised by the Mirror ahead of the snooker star's 50th birthday.

In it he tells how he felt "numb with pain and sorrow" after being told his middle child had died, after he and his wife had three rounds of IVF.

He writes: "Now, instead of looking forward to celebrating a new life, we will be planning a funeral."

The pair named the boy Joseph and buried him in a churchyard close to their home - with Stephen carrying the tiny coffin to the funeral in his arms.

Detailing the key events in his life, the snooker star also tells how he fell for Lauren, a woman 20 years younger than him, after meeting at various snooker events and becoming friendly.

He writes: "People talk about mid-life crisis. But I met someone else and it knocked me for six."

The seven-times world champ then goes into the fallout of his new relationship, and having to call time on his marriage to Mandy.

Stephen writes: "I stay with friends and family while Mandy and I attempt to patch up our marriage. We agree to give it another go. I’m riddled with guilt about the whole thing, but I’m also in love with someone else."

He describes how they tried to salvage the relationship before he realised Mandy can't trust him anymore and eventually they both agreed the marriage is over.

The dad-of-two says telling his sons Blaine, now 21, and Carter, 13, he had to leave was one of the lowest moments of his life.

He writes: "Carter is upset; Blaine becomes very quiet, just like I did when I found out about my parents splitting up.

"It’s horrible, and I feel like the worst person in the world."

The successful snooker player writes about the financial and emotional costs of leaving his wife and setting up an eventual home with Lauren.

He describes the three years between moving out of his Scottish family home and getting the divorce finalised as "the most stressful of my life".

But he concludes that four years on from the breakup of his marriage he is still happily with Lauren and his regrets surround his sons.

The boys were affected by the divorce, he writes, but he adds he is proud of them and credits Mandy for bringing them up well.