She said: “I thought of all the people in the world he would understand better than most how I struggled with depression and how I’d turned to drink and drugs.People had helped him recover and forgiven him but he was clearly writing me off.”

Growing up, Taylor-Ann saw very little of Ronnie, who last weekend crashed out of this year’s Snooker World Championships in the second round.
Before the tournament at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, he was tipped to be in today’s final.

Taylor-Ann’s mum, Sally Ann, discovered she was pregnant just weeks after an acrimonious split with Ronnie in 1996.

Taylor-Ann says: “When I look back our relationship was tragic. I used to google my dad when I was little. I’d screen-shot pictures of him and compare them to ones of me to see if I resembled him. I was desperate for his attention.

“I haven’t watched him play since I was four. He promised he’d wave to me from the telly and I watched a whole tournament just waiting for my special wave. It never came and I was heartbroken.”

But with no real understanding of her dad’s true character, Taylor-Ann was not prepared for the blow that sent her life reeling in 2013, when she was just 17.

She explained: “I’d got a place at college to do business studies. As it was too far to commute my mum helped me find a flat. I was thrilled. I loved the course and got distinctions in the first year. I was so excited about telling Dad so I met him in a cafe.

“I told him Mum had transferred the £1,080 per month maintenance he paid to her into my bank to cover my rent, bills and college fees.

“He seemed a bit surprised. He raised an eyebrow and said, ‘That’s what you use it for?’ I hit back, saying, ‘I just want my dad’.

“He smiled and nodded. I asked him to stay in touch. I remember saying a phone call every couple of months would be plenty. It was pathetic, really, looking back. But then I had no idea what was about to happen.”

She claims that after dropping her home, Ronnie severed all contact and immediately stopped the payments.

She said: “He’d stopped paying the court-ordered amount. I couldn’t believe it, especially when he knew it was covering my rent and college fees.”

Unable to pay her rent, Taylor-Ann lost her home and was forced to drop out of college — before the courts had time to order Ronnie to cough up the arrears. He later resumed the payments — but the damage had been done.

Taylor-Ann said: “I became depressed by what had happened and started drinking heavily to forget how miserable I was. I lost my driving licence for speeding, my job, and doing cocaine became a regular thing.

“To be honest I didn’t really care. I just wanted to blot out the pain my dad had caused. Several times I thought about just ending my life and the whole sorry mess.”

Taylor-Ann, from Redbridge, Essex, claims she had no contact with dad-of-three Ronnie, who is now dating Holby City actress Laila Rouass, 46, for years before texting him in 2016.

She said: “I hadn’t called him or spoken to him for three years. It felt like we were finally building bridges

“I wasn’t even sure of his number but just sent a text saying, ‘Hi Dad’ and he replied, ‘All right mate’. Even that was difficult. I didn’t want to be his mate, I’m his daughter.

“To be fair, we did have a long chat on the phone a few days later. We caught up on everything that had happened to both of us. He sounded like he cared then.

“We talked a couple more times on the phone over the next few months. It felt we were finally building bridges.”

They even went out for a Thai meal last March with his children from another relationship Lily, now 12, and little Ronnie, ten.

She said: “It was lovely to see my brother and sister. I really love them and am happy and grateful that they have a better relationship with their dad than I do. I confided in Dad about my problems.

“He offered to pay for me to re-take my driving test and get my licence back. He could see how touched I was by the offer and even said, ‘Look, it’s not just you I ignore when things get difficult — I do it to Lily when she gets demanding’.

“I think he was trying to make me feel better — in a clumsy way. I was grateful and managed to ask why he’d stopped paying my maintenance the year before.

“His reply stunned me. He said, ‘You know Taylor-Ann, I’ve gone through life with people treating me like an ATM machine. Why should I keep paying? What do I get out of it?’”

She found Ronnie’s hard love a shock and was more confused when he sent her a text that night. She said: “He sent me a really lovely message. He said he was proud of me for recognising my problems and attempting to deal with them.

“I immediately forgot his harsh words earlier and was so delighted that he’d said he was proud of me. It was one of the few times he’d paid me a compliment in my life.”

But the relationship took a terrible turn when Taylor-Ann — who had still not kicked her drug issue — went on a night out with a mutual friend of Ronnie’s.

During a cocaine binge, the friend told Taylor-Ann her dad had warned the rest of the family to sever all ties with her. She said: “I was so hurt, so upset. I had no idea whether it was true. At some point the person I was with rang my dad and started having a go at him.

“She had the phone on speaker and I heard my dad say, ‘You pair of cokeheads need help’.

“I just broke down and sobbed because he obviously wasn’t going to help me. I tried to contact him to explain but it seemed he no longer wanted to know.”

A few days later — in March last year — a broken Taylor-Ann checked into a rehab centre for cocaine addiction. But she claims at no point did her dad visit, call or even message to ask how she was.

Just days after coming out of rehab she landed a new job at a car parts firm, where she met her boyfriend — and father of her child — Naihan Chowdhury, 21. The pair are now sharing a one-bed flat