Talking to my wife on the phone was my lifeline," Becker speaks about his days spent in prison
In 2022, Boris Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in the UK for financial fraud. Although he was released after eight months behind bars, the former German champion is still banned from British soil.
The youngest winner in Wimbledon history (at 17 years old), now 57, opened up about the hell of prison in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine. He discusses the physical challenges, threats from other inmates, and the importance of his wife, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, during that time:
"That endless routine eats away at your soul and boils your mind. You quickly realize that it's the prisoners who control the prisons.
Romanian inmates came to my cell to slap me if I didn't pay (a £500 debt accumulated during poker games). An outside friend had to transfer the amount. Without him, I might not be here to talk about it.
By October, I was sleeping in a tracksuit and socks. Some nights, it was so cold in my cell that I slept with two jackets and two pairs of socks, wrapping a towel around my head.
I lost seven kilos in the first four weeks. There was little food, no alcohol, no sugar, but a lot of stress. Talking to my wife was my lifeline and the only way to be myself. You never really get rid of prison. That experience changed me forever.
