Former tennis player Boris Becker, a six-time Grand Slam champion, hit rock bottom following his prison sentence last April after being found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act
Boris Becker has given more insight into his time in prison (Image: ITV)
Former tennis player Boris Becker has refused to disclose too much information regarding his time behind bars.
Last April, the German was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act. The six-time Grand Slam winner spent time at Wandsworth Prison before being transferred to HMP Huntercombe near Nuffield, Oxfordshire, where he spent the majority of his time in jail.
It was there that Becker – who only ended up serving eight months in prison – suffered the most challenging period of his time in jail as a fellow inmate left him feeling terrified. During an interview on ITV daytime show This Morning, host Holly Willoughby asked the youngest ever Wimbledon champion about his experience, but he did not give much away at all.
Holly said: “There was one inmate in particular while you were in there where you did fear for your life, because of that one person.”
Before Becker quickly replied: “As I was told, what happens in prison stays in prison, it’s a different world,” Becker began. “You can only share it with other inmates because someone on the outside world wouldn’t believe it. It’s dangerous, you have to always be looking over your shoulder, you don’t know who is in the next cell.”
He added: “Another difficult moment was I was surrounded by murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and people smugglers. We are all inmates and we all share the same canteen, so it’s about trying to deal with that.”
Since his release, the 55-year-old was back on TV as part of German Eurosport’s commentary team for the Australian Open earlier this year, However, due to his deportation from the UK it will be some time before the tennis pundit will be able to touch down back on British soil.
Therefore, he confirmed that he won’t be back working at Wimbledon this year. “I miss London, it is my favourite city in the world,” Becker explained. “I’ve been there for a long time. I’m going to miss Wimbledon this year. I have to take my time before I will be coming back.”
Becker served eight months behind bars before he was deported back to Germany (Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
In less than two weeks, Becker will have a documentary released on Apple TV+. Titled ‘Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker’, it will focus on some of the darkest moments of his life as well as the success he achieved throughout his tennis career.
The likes of fellow tennis icon John McEnroe and Novak Djokovic, who he used to coach, will feature as they comment on his tennis legacy. Becker also gives some insight into his spending and lifestyle choices while he was in the peak of his career.
He said about his spending: “By 17 I won my first million. So money goes out the window, you lose the sense of value. You don’t know that 99 per cent of people don’t ever earn a million pounds. A lot of athletes, we assume the money we earn during our careers will continue to come in afterwards.
“So we don’t adapt our lifestyles quickly enough. You keep spending money you don’t make any more, you keep spending money that you made before. So, yeah, I’m blaming me.”
