Boris Becker has described his time in prison as “very brutal” after the tennis great spent eight months behind bars. The German was sentenced to two-and-a-half years inside in April 2022 for hiding assets worth £2.5million after being declared bankrupt.
Becker was declared bankrupt in June 2017 after an unpaid loan of more than £3million on his estate in Majorca left him owing creditors almost £50million. The 55-year-old said the experience had “humbled” him, but had made him a “stronger, better man”.
“Whoever says that prison life isn’t hard and isn’t difficult, I think is lying,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, in quotes reported by the Independent.
“It was very brutal. A very, very different experience to what you see in the movies, what you’ve heard from stories.
“You fight every day for survival. Quickly, you have to surround yourself with the tough boys, as I would call it, because you need protection.”
“I’m a survivor; I’m a tough cookie,” Becker continued. “I’ve taken the incarceration, but I’ve also taken the glory and if anything this made me a stronger, better man.”
He was now working on his life’s “third chapter”, he said.
“I am fortunate that I can stand on my feet, none of my partners have dropped me. They’ve welcomed me back home.
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“Whether that’s the television, some of my sponsors, my family have certainly stood strongly behind me. . . And I’m not taking this lightly, but I am strongly building my third chapter.”
He continued: “In the tennis world, I am usually good in the fifth set. I’ve won the first two sets and lost the next two but I am playing the fifth set and I am planning to win that.”
Becker's comments come after a two-part documentary Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker debuted on April 7 on Apple TV+. Discussing the show last month, Becker said he felt the tennis world had “embraced” him since his release in December, after which he was deported from the UK and will not be allowed to return until October 2024.
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