Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has claimed he has lost 95 per cent of his friends since leaving prison.
The 58-year-old, who shot to fame in 1985 when he became the youngest ever men’s champion at Wimbledon, was declared bankrupt in 2017 and jailed in 2022 for hiding £2.5million of assets and loans to avoid paying taxes.
Becker, who was previously convicted of tax evasion in Germany in 2002, was sent to HMP Wandsworth after being handed a two-and-a-half-year sentence and he has now opened up on how that period has transformed his social life since becoming a free man.
‘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?”
‘I would say that 90 per cent of my former circle is gone. Probably even 95 per cent.’
Boris Becker, pictured alongside his wife Lilian, has opened up on being deserted by friends
Lilian stood by Becker when he was jailed in 2022 for failing to disclose his assets and loans
Wimbledon gets underway on Monday and once again Becker is unable to attend due to the terms of his early release, having spent eight months incarcerated before he was deported out of the UK.
While Becker is in negotiations with the UK Home Office about having his travel ban to the UK overturned, the continued hole in his life when it comes to Wimbledon remains.
‘I don’t think I miss London, but I miss Wimbledon,’ he added.
‘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.’
Three-and-a-half years on from his prison release, which saw him spend time at HMP Wandsworth before switching to Huntercombe, a Category C Oxfordshire jail for foreign nationals, Becker resides in Italy with his third wife, Lillian, and their young daughter Zoe, who is his fifth child.
Living in Germany, he explained, was never an option due to many German nationals viewing him as their ‘property’ and not respecting his privacy, and so Italy has given him a second chance to rebuild his life.
Becker expects some of those he once called dear friends to try to return to his circle as the years go on.
Becker is a six-time Grand Slam winner but he is currently under a travel ban, which has been in place since his release and prevents him from travelling to the UK, and as such Wimbledon
But he and his family are now on high alert after being deserted by so many – this doesn’t include former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who attempted to visit Becker at Huntercombe, only for that request to be denied due to security concerns – in his darkest moments.
‘Of course people are trying to come back into my life,’ Becker concluded. ‘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.’
