Snooker legend Alex Higgins starved to death after refusing to eat, his close pal Jimmy White revealed last night.

He said the desperately weak former world champion snubbed pleas from friends and family and dropped to a shocking six stone.

His body ravaged by years of hard living, hellraiser Higgins, 61, had lost his teeth after battling cancer and been keeping himself alive in his final weeks by drinking Guinness.

Snooker star Jimmy, 48, said: “He died from lack of nourishment. We’ve lost a genius and one of the greatest champions of the game.”

Anguished Jimmy last night revealed he cried for hours after hearing close friend Alex “Hurricane” Higgins had died.

He said he had watched in agony as the emaciated snooker legend had wasted away due to his refusal to eat.

Higgins had recently got the all clear from throat cancer but radiotherapy had robbed him of his teeth – forcing him to survive on pureed food and Guinness.

Gaunt and haggard from years of excess, former hellraiser Alex could barely lift a snooker cue by the time he died and he weighed just six stone.

Opening his heart about the bond he shared with the ex double world champion, Jimmy, 56, said: “I was crying all yesterday. I’m absolutely devastated.

“I was in awe of him. I didn’t always agree with what he did but I loved him. I have lost a friend and I will remember him forever.

“Alex took snooker in the 1970s to the heights which it reached in the 80s – that was all down to him.”

Higgins’ body was already ravaged by years of boozing and hard living. But it was his battles against throat cancer which left him a shadow of his former self. Jimmy watched his friend slowly deteriorate in the last three years despite him getting the all clear.

He revealed divorced dad-of-two Higgins ignored constant pleas from friends and family to eat healthily. Speaking from Thailand where he has been playing in a tournament, Jimmy said: “In the end it wasn’t cancer that killed him, the cancer had gone, he died from lack of nourishment, how sickening is that?

“Unfortunately Alex was his own man and he just wouldn’t listen to anyone.

“He was a very picky eater, one sandwich a day, he never ate much.

“His sister Jean would bring food round, make a roast dinner and put it in a blender, but it was hard work to get him to eat anything. Higgins was in a catch 22, he didn’t like food very much and couldn’t eat because he had no teeth.”

Jimmy was told of his friend’s death in an emotional phone call from Jean who found his body in his bedroom at 5pm Saturday. She had turned up at the sheltered accommodation where Higgins lived in Belfast to deliver a weekly food parcel. A plate of untouched food had fallen to the floor next to him.

Jimmy revealed: “Alex was never a big drinker, it’s a load of rubbish what has been said about him. But he did have six, maybe seven, halves of Guinness at the local pub and, if anything, it was the Guinness that probably kept him alive this long.”

Friends of the star, who could only talk in a whisper because of the cancer, held a fundraiser in May in a desperate bid to raise £20,000 for permanent false teeth to allow him to rebuild his strength.

Higgins was apparently optimistic and told Jimmy and other stars: “I’m making a comeback, the Hurricane will blow again.”

But it was a visit to a Spanish dentist that came as a real setback. He went out to Marbella to have his teeth fixed – but was turned away for being underweight.

Higgins was Belfast’s second-favourite son after George Best, his great friend who gives his name to Belfast’s airport.

The star – who used to hang out with hellraisers Oliver Reed and Keith Moon – was renowned for his hedonism. But it was his snooker talent that won fans.

Jimmy revealed: “He had that special magic that gives everybody a buzz. I remember doing a trick shot for him when I was 19, I lay on the table and he potted the black out of my mouth live on the BBC.” Three-times world champ Ronnie O’Sullivan added: “He is a true legend and the finest-ever snooker player.”

Fellow star Ken Doherty added: “Nobody could emulate what he did. He was such a once-off.” Player-turned-commentator Dennis Taylor said: “You’ll ever see another player like him.”

Firebrand Higgins’ fall from grace began in 1986 when he head-butted an official and was fined £12,000 and banned for the next five major tournaments.

He raised his game one more time, to outplay Stephen Hendry and win the Irish Benson & Hedges Masters in 1989, hobbling round the table with his leg in plaster due to a broken ankle from falling out of a first-floor window. The following year, he was in trouble again and banned for 12 months after hitting an official.

A postmortem on Higgins’ body is due to take place today. It is believed a lack of nutrition and his weak state led to further complications, possibly a heart attack. Family and friends are now planning a huge funeral in Belfast.

- In return for this article, Jimmy White has asked the Mirror to make a donation to specialist cancer hospital The Royal Marsden which helped Higgins overcome his throat cancer.