Boris Becker's estranged wife has broken her silence after the tennis ace was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for bankruptcy fraud.
Speaking on Piers Morgan's Uncensored show on Tuesday, Dutch model Lilly Becker, 45, said she completely "broke down" at the sentencing as she spoke how the former Wimbledon champ, 54, was bearing up in prison.
Lilly told Piers that Boris is "doing ok and as good as he can be", before quipping jail "is not exactly a five star hotel is it?"
The six-time Grand Slam champion arrived at Wandsworth Prison on Friday after he was given a 30-month sentence at Southwark Crown Court, of which he will serve half, for hiding £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.
Boris had arrived at Southwark Crown Court for his sentencing with his current partner, political risk analyst Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro. The pair started dating in 2020.
But Lilly was there in the courtroom. Speaking of the moment the judge sentenced Boris, she told TalkTV: "I completely broke down.
"I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because I was convinced, until the judge made her verdict, that he was going to get a little bit lighter than two and a half years.
"I had to keep it together and I don’t know how I did it.”
Lilly said she is still "very much" Boris' wife despite splitting four years ago.
She told Piers: "I'm very much still his wife. Estranged wife as that may be but we're still very much married and have been since we went our separate ways."
Lilly said their romance was a "complete, true love story".
"Everyone who knows us knows this," she said. "It's not that I don't want to get a divorce. We should handle our business at the right time."
When Piers asked whether she still loves Boris, she replied: "Of course I do."
Lilly said those closest to Boris have "pulled together", and that she and his girlfriend Lilian reached out to each other straight after his sentencing.
"I’m here to show everybody that he has a bunch of really strong women behind him, and who are here not to speak for him, but to protect him", she said.
Lily also said telling their 12-year-old son his father was going to prison was "the hardest thing I ever had to do".
"I had to break it down to him," she said. "We as a family had purposefully not spoken about the trial or anything.
"But I had no choice but to break my heart – or actually his heart – last Sunday. I don’t wish this upon anybody. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do."
She said her son is "dying" to see his father, and she hopes they can visit him in jail.
"Thank God his mental health is so strong and he’s probably prepared for these moments," she said. "Life with Boris is never boring, it’s headline after headline."
Lilly and the tennis star announced their divorce in 2018 after nine years of marriage.
Becker, who was handed a two-year suspended sentence for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion worth 1.7 million euro (around £1.4 million) in Germany in 2002, was found guilty last month of four offences under the Insolvency Act between June 21 and October 3 2017.
The three-time Wimbledon champion and former world number one was declared bankrupt on June 21 2017, owing creditors almost £50 million, over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his estate in Majorca, Spain.
The former BBC commentator transferred almost 427,000 euros (around £390,000) from his business account to others, including to Ms Becker and to his other ex-wife Barbara Feltus.
