{"id":122868,"date":"2025-09-08T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122868\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:52:09","slug":"boris-becker-opens-up-on-his-terrifying-eight-months-in-prison-and-drastic-weight-loss-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122868\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Becker opens up on his terrifying eight months in prison and drastic weight loss | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boris Becker<\/a> has given the raw truth about his time in prison. He served eight months<\/a> at Wandsworth and Huntercombe before being released and deported from the UK. The three-time Wimbledon<\/a> champion went on trial in 2022 and was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act.<\/p>\n

A jury determined that the German, who was convicted of tax evasion in 2002, hid \u00a32.5million worth of assets and loans to avoid repaying debts to his creditors. Almost three years later, Becker has now revealed that he will \u201cnever completely shake that time\u201d and still struggles to sleep at night.<\/p>\n

Becker was forced to come to terms with life behind bars, attempting to gain the \u201ctrust\u201d of his inmates. His glittering career meant nothing in the confines of prison.<\/p>\n

His time in jail quickly took a toll, and within a few weeks, he drastically lost weight. The six-time Major winner only had respite when speaking to his wife, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis endlessness eats away at your soul and boils your mind. You quickly realise that prisons are actually controlled by prisoners. Talking to my wife on the phone was my lifeline and the only way I could be myself,\u201d he told Suddeutsche Zeitung<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy October, I was sleeping in my tracksuit and socks. Some nights it was so cold in my cell that I slept in two jackets and two pairs of socks, wrapping a towel around my head. I lost seven kilos in the first four weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were several reasons for this: emotional stress, little food, no alcohol, no sweets. Dinner was served at 4pm. My wife said with gallows humour, \u2018Boris, you’ve gotten so slim, shouldn’t we ask if you can stay longer?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent months establishing myself as a trusted and respected figure among the guards. My position as a stoic philosophy teacher and my duties at the gym helped me with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker was initially sentenced to 30 months\u2019 imprisonment but served eight before he was released. But he still can\u2019t move on from his time behind bars, and believes he never will.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ll never completely shake that time. You’ll take prison with you into your new life. I can only fall asleep if the bedroom door is completely closed,\u201d the retired tennis star said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn bed, I lie so close to the edge that I almost fall out. When I sleep, even the largest mattress turns into a narrow cot. I’m not a psychologist, so I can only say that things were different before prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker has attempted to move on since his release. In 2023, he was the subject of a documentary – Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker – he\u2019s been spotted at various tennis tournaments over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n

Becker and his wife, de Carvalho Monteiro, are also expecting their first child together.<\/p>\n

To be the first to receive the latest tennis news, join our WhatsApp community<\/a> or newsletter<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boris Becker has given the raw truth about his time in prison. He served eight months at Wandsworth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[11123,58521,101,118,872,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-122868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-boris-becker","tag-boris-becker-prison","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}