Lawrence Dallaglio took some massive hits on the way to becoming a World Cup winner and one of England's greatest rugby union players.

Off the field, he's weathered the storms of cheating, drugs and brothel party scandals as well as overcoming tragedy and adversity.

But now the rugby legend is facing perhaps his greatest ever challenge as he fights to get his life back on track after he was declared bankrupt in the wake of a bitter divorce ruck with his wife of 20 years.

In the latest blow Dallaglio, 52, has been forced to sell the family home where he watched his children grow up to pay off his creditors.

Dallaglio had hoped to pocket £3.3 million from the sale of the 'idyllic' four bedroomed property in leafy Richmond, Surrey, which he bought at the height of his career and had been his home for nearly 25 years.

But MailOnline can reveal he's now sold the property at a knockdown price - losing out on £600,000 - because of the desperate state of his financial affairs.

Ironically, the home has been snapped up by an up-and-coming young sports star, who plays for a premier league club. 

While apparently making a healthy profit on the sale of the property, which Dallaglio bought for £925,000 in 2001, it emerged during an insolvency court hearing earlier this month that the equity in the home was only around £1.2million.

The hearing was triggered by Dallaglio's estranged wife Alice, also 52, who was seeking an 'urgent' order allowing the immediate sale of the house.

Alice, who was represented by separate lawyers from her husband, was said to have done so in the hope of staving off the imminent threat of Dallaglio's financial ruin.

While the sale went through, the bid failed and Dallaglio was declared bankrupt after one of his creditors secured the order.

It came two years after the sportsman, who now works as a TV pundit, narrowly avoided going bust following a petition by HM Revenue and Customs over an unpaid £700,000 tax bill.

During proceedings his financial woes were laid bare after it was revealed his sports business, which he set up the year he became England captain in 1997, owed cash to a string of creditors.

To prevent the firm being wound up by a court order, Dallaglio agreed to an 'individual voluntary agreement' to pay off his debts.

But last year a report into his financial affairs stated Dallaglio was still being chased for hundreds of thousands of pounds in loans.

The couple - who married in a romantic ceremony at Lake Como in 2005 - sold their home just months after appearing at the Central Family Court in Holborn to finalise the end of their marriage.

When details of the divorce emerged, Alice's family hit back at claims the marriage had never recovered from a fling the former model had at the age of 31 with millionaire property developer Leon Butler in 2005.

The affair happened after the couple's marriage reportedly hit a rocky patch following the birth of their children - son Enzo and daughters Ella and Josie.

Her artist mother Lydia Corbett - who was said to have been Pablo Picasso's last muse - told how Dallaglio's troubles were at the heart of the split.

She told MailOnline: 'I'm very sad about it. People marry and they divorce, I've been divorced twice so I know what it's like. It's horrible, it's painful for the heart and it's not fair.

'He did very well, I loved him, but he's going through a bad phase and we hope he's alright.'

Certainly Alice - who met Dallaglio in 1992 when he was still trying to make his mark in the game - had plenty to contend with herself when Dallaglio dropped the ball on a number of occasions.

Their marriage survived a succession of scandals dating back to the late Nineties when allegations of wild partying emerged, while Alice was at home looking after the children.

Her affair came two years after the rugby ace allegedly slept with a married mother, leading to the woman divorcing her husband.

Four years earlier, Dallaglio was stripped of the England captaincy after he allegedly confessed he had used prostitutes in Amsterdam, and was accused of using and dealing cocaine and ecstasy.

He told an undercover newspaper reporter he had been a teenage drug dealer and reportedly added: 'I made big, big money from dealing in drugs.

'Why do you think I know so much about drugs? I was surrounded by it. I used to drive from one end of London to the other with five or six ounces of it (cocaine).

'That's how I used to make money before I took up rugby.'

Dallaglio also allegedly boasted how he and two other players had taken ecstasy 'and then a couple of wraps of coke' to celebrate winning the 1997 Lions series in South Africa.

At the time, Dallaglio claimed he had been 'naive and foolish' but admitted he had experimented with drugs in his late teens.

He said he was now 'completely against drugs', adding: 'I will always regret the effect that this has had on everyone.'

The incident led to him being fined £15,000 for bringing the game into disrepute on top of legal costs amounting to £10,000.

In 2020 he found himself caught up in another sleazy scenario when a court heard Dallaglio made 'payments of up to £10,000 at a brothel' in Holborn, which also offered clients cocaine.

Wood Green Crown Court heard how undercover police raided a Georgian townhouse in July 2019 where a gang were running a vice operation supplying £300-an-hour prostitutes as well as Class A drugs.

Using evidence from card machines found in a secret compartment in a basement lavatory, prosecutors compiled a spreadsheet of payments made at the address.

They included four from Dallaglio's account on March 22, 2019, amounting to a total of £10,500.

One of the transactions, for £7,550, was paid into the account of one of the defendants, a Romanian madam aged 22.

Dallaglio was interviewed under caution but was not arrested and did not give evidence in the case.

Dallaglio's scandals off the pitch seem at odds with his powerhouse performances at the back of the scrum during a glittering career.

At 6ft 4ins and weighing 17 stone, he earned 85 caps playing for England - including 22 as captain - and was a key member of the 2003 World Cup winning squad.

He was also picked for the British & Irish Lions on three separate tours, and won five Premiership titles and two Heineken Cups in the all-conquering Wasps teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Dallaglio has told how he was inspired to make something of his life following the tragic death of his older sister Francesca in the Marchioness riverboat disaster in 1989.

At 19, the trainee ballerina, who had performed for Princess Diana, was the youngest of the 51 victims who died after two boats collided on the River Thames in London.

Dallaglio - who was brought up a Roman Catholic - was 16 at the time and a boarder at Ampleforth public school in North Yorkshire.

The tragedy happened during the summer holidays and Dallaglio had also been invited to attend the party that night but declined because of a headache.

Dallaglio has told how the possession he valued above all others was a small wooden chest full of possessions that belonged to Francesca.

He told how the chest contained 'little treasures, like her diary, ballet shoes and jewellery'.

In an interview in 2011 Dallaglio said: 'Losing a member of one's family is a terrible thing, particularly for us, having been very close-knit. I became quite driven after that.

'I thought: "I now actually need to pull my finger out and do something that's going to bring everyone together."'

While rugby had just been a hobby up until then, Dallaglio - the son of an Italian father and an English-born mother of Irish descent - had already enjoyed a colourful childhood.

Before Ampleforth Dallaglio attended private King's House School in Richmond where, as a 12-year-old chorister, he sang at Andrew Lloyd Webber's wedding and provided backing vocals for Tina Turner's 1985 smash hit We Don't Need Another Hero.

He also backed performances by Barry Manilow and appeared onstage in the West End in the Lloyd Webber musical Evita.

After retiring from the game in 2008, he has also worked as an after dinner speaker alongside his TV and radio punditry.

He set up his own charity Dallaglio RugbyWorks following the death of his mother Eileen from cancer in 2008.

After some initial huge success, Dallaglio refocused the charity on a social inclusion programme, aiming to help teenagers who have been excluded from mainstream education.

He has also taken part in several physical challenges, including cycling events, and has raised millions of pounds in the process.

Already an MBE, he was also awarded an OBE in 2008 for his contribution to sport and charity.

Despite his controversies, Dallaglio has insisted that he had never been happier than the time spent at his Richmond home with his family.

He once told how he would end his 'fantasy 24 hours' drinking champagne with Alice there.

The couple often hosted dinner parties at the house where Dallaglio - author of My Italian Family Cookbook - would rustle up dishes inspired by his father.

As Dallaglio faces rebuilding his life, neighbours told of their sadness as the couple had become much loved members of the local community.

One said: 'They have been here for years, and we have watched them raise their three children in the house, it's such a shame to see them go.'