"I would say that 90 per cent of my former circle is gone" - Boris Becker candid about prison sentence and adjusting to life after sentence

Boris Becker's life has never strayed far from the headlines. After breaking onto the scene as a teenager at Wimbledon, controversy culminated in a prison sentence which turned his life upside down as he looks to navigate the years following that tumultuous period.

After being locked up in prison, Becker was in a very tricky situation. He knew that he tried to get through his time while the world went by outside of those ominous walls trapping the German away from reality.

“When you are incarcerated, you literally lose everything,” he told The Telegraph. “All that is left is your personality, your character. So you have to dig down inside to ask, ‘OK, who am I? Is this going to kill me, or is this going to make me stronger?’”

Becker has soon moved on after his eight month stint behind bars. Moving to Italy with his third wife, Lilian, he has happily settled with their seven-month daughter Zoe in Italy three and a half ways following his prison stint.

There are mixed reactions following his post-prison session. “I find they look at me and shake their head, saying, ‘We can’t believe you’re back. How did you do it?’ And then I think to myself, ‘How should I take this? Are you happy for me or not?’ It’s the response I see the most. Both privately and professionally, people can’t believe that I’m back in life, back in business, back in freedom.”

Once a prized possession in his native Germany, Becker has since moved on to live in Milan. The six-time Grand Slam champion achieved his first in a flamboyant manner, characteristic with his public image throughout the years.

The youngest singles Grand Slam champion at just 17-years-old, Becker achieved immortality at Wimbledon in 1985 as he launched himself onto the big stage.

His life has not lived up to what many expected from there. A contentious career, he was deported from the UK in 2022 back to Germany where he was perceived in a completely different manner. The tabloids were ruthless, the paparazzi were desperate for footage while the public perception had hugely shifted from the talented tennis player he once was.

Now 58-years-old, the mood over him is conflicted. Following an incident at a restaurant, he made the decision to flee Germany for pastures new.

“Germans, with all respect, think that I’m their property,” he comments. “It’s as if they own me and, even further, as if they own that 17-year-old. So I feel that the 58-year-old doesn’t really have a right to live or to have an opinion, to disagree or to say no. In Italy, I’m not the property of the country – the people like me, they know me, and I hope that they respect me. That makes it much easier for me to go about my day-to-day life.”

Choosing Milan was a simple decision. “Naturally, you would go for the most beautiful city, which is the capital,” he said with a smile. “But then our argument was that it would be too Italian for me. She was dead right.”

Following his bankruptcy that put him in hot water, he was determined to be a lot more disciplined. “Each month, it gets a little bit better, you get closer to yourself,” he explains. “You think, ‘What went wrong for me to end up in Wandsworth?’ You have to be convinced you will survive. And once you do, the question is ‘What do I do when I get out?’

"That’s why the comeback happened so quickly, because I was already preparing while inside. I wasn’t whining, I wasn’t making other people responsible for my mistakes. I said, ‘OK, I f----d up’. With the help of my wife and a very small group of people, I started to select who was with me, who was not with me. What would be my first move, my third move? It becomes like a really long, good chess game.”

Becker needed something to do when in jail. Chess was a no brainer for him to pass the time, a hobby he enjoyed and got very good at. “Chess was the easiest way for me to be stimulated, and there were some very good players inside, trust me,” he stated. “You don’t have much of a chance to speak to anybody, and so chess became my game. For me it’s the best game in the world.”

Before being locked up, Becker had first met with his future wife, Lilian, in 2018. The prison sentence took a huge toll on Lilian who opted to stick with Becker through the ups and downs in an undeniable show of loyalty.

“She felt a little disrespected,” he says. “Why would I say that? And I said, ‘Well, because half my life has gone, and you’re in a different position. And I don’t want to make you feel responsible for something you haven’t done. She laughed and said, ‘No, we’re going to do this together’. It was a great relief. Our secret is that we are very honest with each other, it’s very much eye-to-eye. There’s no, ‘I’m more important than you’ or, ‘You’re more important than me’.”

While his other half stayed close, others were not so loyal with Becker losing a lot of people in his life. “I would say that 90 per cent of my former circle is gone,” he said. “Probably even 95 per cent. That doesn’t mean I don’t say hello – I see their numbers and I write them a friendly ‘No’.”

While some of these people are looking to get back into his life, Becker remains cautious. “Of course people are trying to come back into my life,” he added. “But we have a warning system now within the family. And if the alarm bells go off quickly, then I don’t mind telling you that I can be unfriendly. I’m not going to jeopardise the life we’re having for any more mistakes. You always have to be aware that there’s someone lurking around the corner, trying to manoeuvre you so that you’re falling again. It’s the nature of the beast if you’re in my position. Now there’s nobody coming through.”

He is not allowed to return to the UK, although negotiations are ongoing as he looks to make a return. With Wimbledon soon coming up, this is the main reason he wants to make a return to London.

“I don’t think I miss London, but I miss Wimbledon,” he said. “It’s my birthplace, in a sense. I feel so close to the club, to the courts. I have a story on every court, in every corner, in the locker room, in the car park. I probably know Wimbledon better than anyone else alive.”

The last four editions have not seen Becker among the glamorous guests who attend the prestigious tennis tournament. He is desperate to get back, but notes how complicated it could be in his 'tricky' life.

“I’m complicated. My life is complicated. You have to be intellectually on top to understand it, without being too judgmental right away. If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same… I take it with me everywhere I go. It’s my lifeline.”