Luca Brecel does not have a wife. The 2023 World Snooker Champion has never married. His longest publicly known relationship, with Laura Vanoverberghe, ended in March 2025, less than a year after a Belgian court convicted her of drug trafficking. Since mid-2025 he has been with Shawney Demuyter, a woman from East Flanders.
The detail most coverage of the case missed sits in the dates. Vanoverberghe stopped dealing drugs in January 2023. Three months later, she met Brecel.
Brecel, 31, grew up in Maasmechelen, Belgium, turned professional in 2011 and became the first player from mainland Europe to win the World Snooker Championship when he beat Mark Selby at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on 1 May 2023. Before Vanoverberghe he dated Gaรซlle Dept, a woman he had known since his teens. The two spoke about their relationship, including a first date in Shanghai, in an interview with the Belgian press in 2017.
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Who is Laura Vanoverberghe?
Laura Vanoverberghe is from Blankenberge, a coastal town in West Flanders. She was 24 when she and Brecel started dating in April 2023. Her father, Kurt Vanoverberghe, played snooker at club level in Belgium for years, which is the most direct explanation for how she and Brecel crossed paths. Het Laatste Nieuws, one of Belgium’s largest daily newspapers, reported at the time that she worked in recruitment.
Brecel’s father Carlo confirmed the relationship to journalists shortly after it began and said it was in its early days.
The girlfriend behind the 2023 world title
The two had been together only a few weeks when Vanoverberghe obtained an emergency passport to travel from Belgium to Sheffield for Brecel’s World Championship semi-final against Si Jiahui. Brecel was trailing 14 frames to 5 when she set off. He won 17-15, the biggest comeback in the tournament’s Crucible history.
“When it was 14 each, I said to my girlfriend if I win it would be the most emotional and crazy feeling ever,” Brecel said afterwards.
During the championship he had been driving through the night between sessions to see her in Belgium, then returning in time to play. He arrived five minutes before the start of the final against Selby, won it 18-15, and told the BBC: “I really have the best team, best friends, best parents and best girlfriend in the world.”
The drug case against Laura Vanoverberghe
The Belgian press broke the story in May 2024. Het Belang van Limburg, Het Nieuwsblad, Gazet van Antwerpen, La Libre Belgique and Focus WTV covered the proceedings, drawing on prosecution statements and records from the Bruges Correctional Court.
Vanoverberghe had worked for a drug gang operating out of Blankenberge known as the C-Team, which sold cocaine, cannabis, MDMA, ecstasy and other narcotics. Her involvement ran from March 2022 to January 2023, before she knew Brecel.
March 2022. Vanoverberghe begins working for the C-Team, first as a driver. Her role grows into dealing directly.
25 June 2022. Police stop the gang’s ringleader, Wayan Z., for erratic driving near Blankenberge. A search of his house turns up cocaine, cannabis, brass knuckles and a Rambo knife. Vanoverberghe is found asleep in a bedroom.
January 2023. Her involvement with the gang ends.
April 2023. She starts dating Brecel.
September 2023. Six months into the relationship, Belgian police arrest her. She is released under conditions after questioning.
The prosecution told the court that more than 35,000 euros in drug money had passed through her bank account. Her defence said she became involved because of her own cocaine addiction.
By the time the story reached the public in May 2024, she had been out of the gang for fifteen months and living with Brecel in Limburg for most of a year.
What she told the court
On 6 June 2024, Vanoverberghe appeared before the Bruges Correctional Court on drug trafficking charges.
Her father Kurt sat in the public gallery. Brecel was not in the building.
She did not minimise what she had done. Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Nieuwsblad both reported her statement to the judge: “I am ashamed of the person I was, but proud of the amount of love I receive at home today.”
She said she was in rehab and wanted to become a nurse.
The court handed her 37 months in prison, suspended, with conditions attached. The two C-Team leaders, Wayan Z. among them, received five-year prison terms, and Wayan Z. faced the seizure of more than 55,000 euros.
Did Luca Brecel and Laura Vanoverberghe break up?
Yes. The relationship ended in March 2025.
The confirmation did not come from Brecel. His father Carlo told the Belgian press the two had gone their separate ways and that his son wanted to focus on his career. Brecel himself said nothing publicly.
Carlo had been the one to announce the relationship when it began. He was the one to announce its end. On both occasions, his son stayed silent.
Who is Luca Brecel dating now?
In June 2025, the snooker publication Totally Snookered reported that Brecel had posted a photograph on Instagram with a woman identified by a Belgian news website as Shawney Demuyter. The Belgian outlet GezondheidOnline reported in February 2026 that Demuyter comes from East Flanders, works in healthcare and hospitality, and shares Brecel’s interest in tattoos and animals. The pair were photographed together on holiday in Knokke. No engagement or marriage has been announced.
Brecel’s career has not recovered the heights of 2023. He posted a statement on Instagram in August 2025 saying he had been dealing with health problems since April of that year, and his world ranking stood at 44 in May 2026, down from a career high of No. 2 after his title win. He is also training for an Ironman triathlon, with a race in 2028 as his target.
The day he first posted a photograph with Demuyter, 22 June 2025, Brecel was due to play a Wuhan Open qualifier in Leicester. Hours before the match, he uploaded a second image: two pizzas on a table, two glasses of wine. He never arrived. His opponent, Haris Tahir, was awarded the tie 5-0.
