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Former tennis superstar Boris Becker has opened up on the 231 days he spent in prison, saying that it was a “huge embarrassment” but that he doesn’t “feel sorry” for himself.
The 57-year-old German, who can currently be seen in Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt, was jailed in October 2022 after being investigated for a number of financial irregularities.
The three-time Wimbledon champion was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in April 2022 for hiding £2.5million of assets and loans to avoid paying debts. The German was declared bankrupt in June 2017, owing creditors almost £50 million over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his estate in Mallorca, Spain.
Although he was sentenced to two and half years behind bars, Becker only served 8 months, firstly in HMP Wandsworth in south west London and then HMP Huntercombe in Oxfordshire. He was then deported to Germany in December 2022 and is yet to return to Wimbledon or the UK.
Speaking to The Times, Becker has spoken about how he overcame his experience in prison. “Of course, it’s a huge embarrassment and of course you’re shameful, but you cannot feel sorry for yourself,” says the tennis star.
“If you feel like a victim you’re never going to make it out. I never felt like a victim and very early on I was trying to take responsibility for my actions, good and bad. I don’t blame anybody,” he added.
“I’m responsible for my good decisions and for my bad decisions. More importantly for me is how you finish and I feel like I really came out better.”
Becker also stated that he’s “not allowed” to talk about any plans for him to return to Wimbledon to commentate, having spent many years working for the BBC. In April 2024, he declared that he was “working hard with the authorities” to return to the tennis club.
During his absence from the 2022 Wimbledon tournament, Becker received on-air messages of support from his former colleagues including Sue Barker and John McEnroe.
Becker was discharged from bankruptcy court in London after a judge found in May 2024 that he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to repay creditors tens of millions of pounds.
Becker fell far short of repaying his creditors in full, but Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nicholas Briggs said it would be “perverse” not to end the case given the efforts Becker made.
“On the spectrum of bankrupts who range from ‘difficult as possible and doing everything to frustrate the trustee’s inquiries’ to ‘co-operative, providing information and delivering up assets’, Mr Becker clearly falls on the right side of the line,” Briggs wrote.
