Boris Becker has opened up on his experience while incarcerated in a UK prison and how it ‘boils your mind’, as he reveals what really went on during his eight months behind bars.
Becker, 57, was declared bankrupt in 2017, despite being once worth £38million, and was later jailed in April 2022 for hiding assets and a loan from creditors.
The German was also convicted for failing to declare property in his home country and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
He spent time at both Wandsworth and Huntercombe for the bankruptcy offences before he was released after serving eight months and deported from the UK.
Nearly three years on from his release, the six-time tennis Grand Slam champion has recounted the brutal nature of incarceration to German media outlet Suddeutsche Zeitung.
His time locked up had extremely distressing effects on his mental and physical health, and the presence of his 35-year-old wife, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, who is currently pregnant with their first child, was the only way he could cope.
‘This endlessness eats away at your soul and boils your mind,’ he said. ‘You quickly realise that prisons are actually controlled by prisoners. Talking to my wife on the phone was my lifeline and the only way I could be myself.
‘By October, I was sleeping in my tracksuit and socks. Some nights it was so cold in my cell that I slept in two jackets and two pairs of socks, wrapping a towel around my head. I lost seven kilos in the first four weeks.
‘There were several reasons for this: emotional stress, little food, no alcohol, no sweets. Dinner was served at 4 p.m. My wife said with gallows humour, “Boris, you’ve gotten so slim, shouldn’t we ask if you can stay longer?”‘
Becker’s tennis career is the stuff of sporting legend. He is the youngest-ever winner of the gentlemen’s singles Wimbledon Championships title at 17, which he won in 1985, and he is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time with 64 title wins.
However, none of that mattered while he was in prison. Becker has spoken of his icon status meant nothing behind the reinforced concrete walls, and that he needed to earn fellow inmates ‘trust’ just like everybody else.
He continued: ‘I spent months establishing myself as a trusted and respected figure among the guards. My position as a stoic philosophy teacher and my duties at the gym helped me with that.’
One way he tried to pass the time while jailed was by playing poker with hardened criminals after picking the game up following his retirement from tennis.
It’s a decision he now cites as ‘foolish’, as once again it landed him in financial trouble, and it led to him needing to be saved by somebody on the outside.
‘After a poker game with Romanian prisoners that lasted several days, you ended up with a debt of £500,’ Becker added. ‘Of course, it was stupid and foolish of me to play poker with people like that, but I wanted to stick to the truth in my book; otherwise, there’s no point in writing one.
‘After tennis, I played poker professionally for a while, so I thought, what could possibly happen to me? It’s just a little fun on the side. But I played poker with real criminals who came to my cell and tried to slap me across the face if I didn’t pay up. If a friend outside of prison hadn’t solved the problem with a money transfer, I’d be a different person today.’
Despite only being in prison for less than a year, Becker says he will ‘never shake the time’ and it’s an experience that has changed his life forever.
To this day, the tennis icon continues to look over his shoulder even while in the confines of his own home.
He explained: ‘You’ll never completely shake that time. You’ll take prison with you into your new life. I can only fall asleep if the bedroom door is completely closed.
‘In bed, I lie so close to the edge that I almost fall out. When I sleep, even the largest mattress turns into a narrow cot. I’m not a psychologist, so I can only say that things were different before prison.’
Becker was found guilty of four offences under the Insolvency Act, and acquitted of a further 20 counts at Southwark Crown Court.
After burning through his multi-million pound fortune, Becker found himself in an inescapable hole of debt and was declared bankrupt in June 2017 over an unpaid loan of more than £3million on his estate in Mallorca, Spain.
In an attempt to hide £2.5million in assets while bankrupt, Becker transferred €427,00 (£356,000) to the bank accounts of several recipients, including his ex-wife Barbara and his estranged wife Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Becker.
He also failed to declare his share in a £1million property in his home town of Leimen, Germany, hid a bank loan of almost £700,000 – worth £1.1million with interest – and concealed 75,000 shares in a tech firm, valued at £66,000.
But he continued to spend hundreds of pounds at luxury department store Harrods, bought online groceries at Ocado, and treated himself to designer Ralph Lauren clothes, jurors had heard.
He also allegedly hid around £950,000 from the sale of a Mercedes car dealership he owns in Germany, which was paid into his Boris Becker Private Office (BBPOL) account.
Becker was found guilty of the removal of property regarding 426,930 Euros (£350,000) to nine recipients, including his ex-wives Barbara and Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Becker.
He was also convicted of trying to conceal the ownership of his £1.8million villa ‘Im Schilling’ in his native Leimen, Germany, as well as his ownership of 75,000 Data Corp shares.
Jurors also found him guilty of concealing a loan of 825,000 Euros (£688,000) owed by him to the Bank Alpinum of Lichtenstein.
But he was cleared of all other charges, including failing to hand over nine tennis trophies, including those won at the 1985 and 1989 Wimbledon tournaments, the 1991 and 1996 Australian Open, and the 1992 Olympics.
