Author: Boris Becker
_Boris Becker_
Reading time: 21 minutes
Synopsis
From star player to prisoner: In Inside (2025), Boris Becker shares his story about life in prison. He talks about shame, loneliness, and finding unexpected friendships. He speaks honestly about guilt, punishment, and trying to find himself after losing everything.
What you will find here: A look inside prison life with the former tennis star.
In 2022, Boris Becker faced a situation he never imagined: bankrupt and in prison. Inside is his honest account of this time. He writes about losing freedom and fame, about guilt, shame, and searching for meaning. Behind bars, where fame doesn’t matter and every day is a test, Becker found something unexpected: friendship, support, and a part of himself.
Blink 1 – The First Night in Wandsworth – Sounds from Hell
It starts with sounds. Not the soft thud of a perfect serve. Not the applause that used to wash over him like a wave. Instead, there were screams, metallic banging, crazy laughter, and fists hitting steel doors. Behind one of these heavy steel doors now sits Boris Becker. He is only Prisoner A2923EV. The air is cold. The cell is damp. The steel toilet has no seat or lid.
On the morning his sentence was given, he packed his bag in a small London flat. He didn’t know if he would be found innocent or get seven years in prison. What should he wear? He chose a grey suit, a white shirt, and black sneakers. And his Wimbledon tie – a quiet message to the world: I was once someone. In his jacket pocket, he had a rosary. His fingers moved over its beads during the court’s decision. It was also Lilian’s birthday that day. She was close in his thoughts. Later, he would say he owed her his life.
Hours later, the judge read the sentence. He felt something break inside him. It was the last bit of his old self-image, the idea that he could still control things. At HMP Wandsworth, different rules applied. He made none of them. A plastic ID card on a lanyard replaced his name. Grey prison clothes replaced any choice. What he could and could not do was now decided by a system. It didn’t explain things, it just gave orders. It was a hierarchy he didn’t understand.
That first night, Becker was sure: No one can stand this. He counted his breaths. He tried to follow the sounds, like he used to follow the ball in a game. It was useless. He would not sleep.
Flashback: Another London, July 7, 1985. Becker was 17. He stood on the Wimbledon grass and beat Kevin Curren. That rally made him famous forever. In his hometown of Leimen, 50,000 people came to see him in an open jeep. He found it strange, almost uncomfortable, as if he were the Pope. “Suddenly I belonged to everyone else,” he says today. From then on, newspapers and TV people talked about everything. This included his girlfriends, his private life, and his career. Every win made the whole country happy. Every loss was a personal disappointment for the entire nation.
Back in the cell. Becker stared at the blue plastic mattress. How did I end up here? He knew he had made mistakes. He had thought too highly of himself. He had trusted the wrong people. But now, only one thing mattered: surviving, coping. He had so many questions: How should he act? Who was dangerous, who was kind? How did showering, eating, and cell lock-up work? How could he call Lilian? When could she visit him? No one answered his questions.
Blink 2 – Rules, Routines, and Reflections
The morning brought no sun, only neon light. Becker sat on the narrow bunk. He waited for someone to explain how things worked there.
The Listeners came by to check on him. These were experienced prisoners. They helped connect prisoners and guards. They listened, comforted, and explained. They told him where to shower, when doors were locked, and what not to say. One of them, Jake, said: “Stay calm. Speak little. Don’t accept anything.” The Listeners gave vital advice. They also helped get small things: toothpaste, flip-flops. Becker received 15 pounds pocket money each week. He bought snacks with it. But he saved most of it for phone calls. His calls with Lilian were his support. When he spoke to her, he felt less lonely. He felt like himself again.
After only a few days, Becker got a task. The learning program needed someone to help with math and English. Becker took the job. The classroom was small. The atmosphere was focused, almost peaceful. Instead of tennis, Becker now practiced patience. He explained fractions and percentages. He listened when someone talked about their family. No one asked about Wimbledon. No one cared about his fame. For the men in this room, he was not a fallen star. He was just one of them. It was strange: Because no one knew him, he could be himself again here for the first time.
In his cell, he read what he had brought: Barack Obama’s autobiography and a book about Karl Lagerfeld. Thick books that filled the time. He would read them many times. He watched a lot of BBC, especially sports, of course.
Between these activities, there was time for thinking. He thought about his childhood. His strict father. His mother, affected by war and fleeing. Tennis became central early on. He learned: success meant love, failure meant trouble. This simple system, where there was only winning or losing, became his guide in life. But in prison, this did not work. Here, there was no clear outcome. No score. No audience. For the first time, Becker had to learn patience, without a win as the goal.
Blink 3 – Guilt, Responsibility, and the Path to Bankruptcy
In prison, Becker’s thoughts kept coming back to one question: How did it come to this? Between concrete walls and daily routines, his past replayed itself: contracts, loans, bad advice. He understood that his downfall was not just one moment. It was a series of choices he didn’t make himself, but for which he was responsible.
After his tennis career ended, Becker looked for a new role. He found it in business. He also found it with Hans-Dieter Cleven, an older businessman who seemed like a mentor to him. The two started companies and invested together. Becker believed Cleven was acting as a friend. But slowly, friendship turned into distrust. Trust turned into a legal fight. Cleven demanded 40 million Swiss Francs. He lost in court, but the conflict left marks. Becker was tired and suspicious. Still, he let others act for him.
Over the years, he lost track of his money. Houses in Germany, investments, company shares – all seemed valuable, but almost nothing brought in money. His finca in Mallorca, once a symbol of prestige, became a burden. It stood empty, cost money to maintain, and was never fully finished. At the same time, Becker lived as if his past success was still paying for everything: high rents, expensive hotels, luxury trips, support for two families. His income and expenses no longer matched.
In 2017, a London court declared him bankrupt. Becker could not understand this. He didn’t see himself as bankrupt. He thought he was just “temporarily without enough cash.” But the numbers told a different story. Accounts were frozen. Loans continued. Interest rates went up. His lawyers played it down. They said everything would be fine. Today, Becker sees the mistake. He felt he had bad advice. But he also looked away. The paperwork, the deadlines, the endless documents – he hated it all. He never had patience for slow, dry, or invisible things.
When his trial began in 2022, he was accused of hiding parts of his wealth. This included a property in Germany, bank balances, shares, and loans. He was found guilty on four charges under the Insolvency Act. Becker listened as the judge spoke of “lack of humility.” He felt misunderstood. Yes, he had made mistakes. But was it on purpose? Was it deceit? In his view, no.
Looking back, he calls it a “fatal mix of comfort and trust.” He wanted to live, love, travel, train – not sort receipts and sign forms. In tennis, he could win with instinct. In life, he could not. Now, alone in his cell, he had time to understand this.
Blink 4 – Huntercombe – Starting All Over Again
One month after moving into Wandsworth, Boris Becker was suddenly moved. Without warning, his lawyers told him he had half an hour to pack his things. The goal: HMP Huntercombe, a prison for foreign citizens, about 80 kilometers west of London. For Becker, this meant: no open prison, no chance of early release, no ankle tag. Only a new place – and the hope that it would be quieter there.
At first glance, Huntercombe seemed less threatening than Wandsworth. No Victorian arches, but grey functional buildings from the 1970s, surrounded by fields. But the system remained the same: bars, routines, rules. Becker moved into a single cell at the end of the corridor. Everything he had built up in Wandsworth, all his small freedoms, was gone. No more classes, no Listeners by his side. Just the feeling of having to start all over again.
The door opened only two hours a day, for meals. Between these times were tough hours of loneliness. Becker exercised with push-ups and sit-ups. He counted repetitions to control the time.
After a few weeks, he met Andy Small. He was a fit guard with a calm voice. Andy managed the prison gym. Becker hoped to work there soon. It took time. For weeks, he only heard that “someone would take care of it.” The waiting wore him down. But one day, Andy stood at his cell door again: “We have a spot in the gym.”
Becker started at the very bottom. Literally: He wiped floors, emptied bins, scrubbed toilets. But these small tasks gave structure to his day. The gym was a place for movement. Movement was the only thing that kept him feeling alive. Andy quickly noticed that Becker had a sense of responsibility. He suggested Becker join the Stoicism course. Becker read the sentences on the wall. One touched him especially: “It is not important what happens to you, but how you react to it.”
Later, he met Ike, a drug dealer from London, and Shuggy, a gang member from Sri Lanka. Two men with tough pasts, but open hearts. He talked to them about everything – family, mistakes, second chances. For the first time since his conviction, he felt understood.
So, Huntercombe became a place of self-discovery for Becker. He understood that sometimes you need to lose everything to start again from zero.
Blink 5 – Tests, Mistakes, and New Lessons
Mainly, the Stoicism course gave Becker support. He learned not only philosophy there. He also learned about himself: his thoughts, his impatience, his reactions. In tennis, everything was about action. Here, he learned to endure. The texts Andy Small gave him were simple, but very true. One sentence by Epictetus stuck with him. He saw himself in it: “It is not things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them.” Becker’s life was also full of judgments: about others, about himself, about winning and losing. Now he understood that he couldn’t control events, only his attitude towards them.
All of this changed something in him. For the first time since being in prison, he felt that change was possible. After finishing the course, Andy suggested he lead a small group himself. Becker hesitated, then said yes. He read the old texts with the men. He talked with them about responsibility, self-control, and inner peace. For many, it was the first time they spoke about such things.
But even in his new routine, Becker still made mistakes. In a weak moment, he joined a poker game with other prisoners. They played for matches, then suddenly for pound notes. Becker lost track and ended up with 500 pounds in debt. A friend outside paid the sum. But Becker was ashamed. He knew he had gotten carried away. It was from boredom and his old need to control the game. But again, it was the game that controlled him.
Soon after, came the next setback: Becker tested positive for Covid. He was isolated in solitary confinement. Ten days alone. No exercise, no talks, no tasks. The silence was deafening. It hit him harder than anything before. In isolation, he felt like he was back in his first night in Wandsworth. The same confinement, the same helplessness. He read, wrote, and struggled with himself.
During this time, memories came up that helped him not to break. For example, he remembered a friend’s party in spring 2018. He remembered the moment he first met Lilian. In their first conversation, she had asked him: “What makes you happy?” It was a simple question he didn’t know the answer to then.
He thought about this now in the small cell. He also thought about what was waiting for him. The possibility of early deportation was discussed. If he agreed to leave Great Britain, he could be released on December 15, 2022. This was almost two years earlier than planned. For this, he would have to accept that he couldn’t return soon. Not as a commentator, nor as a coach. London, the city of his greatest wins and deepest falls, would be off-limits for a long time. But no matter what, he could be with Lilian.
Becker was unsure. Part of him wanted to stay and fight. He wanted to show he was taking responsibility. Another part just wanted out – out of the small cell, out of the story. Lilian encouraged him. Letters from outside also gave him strength. Jürgen Klopp wrote to cheer him up. Michael Stich, with whom he once had a cool rivalry, sent a few handwritten lines. Becker read the letter many times. He was touched.
In these moments, Becker understood that his importance was not about fame. It was about who he still meant something to. Knee pain, boring food, strict routines – all of that remained. But with the letters, the lessons, and the hope of freedom, a new feeling slowly came. A feeling he hadn’t known for a long time: hope.
When he was finally allowed back into the community from isolation, he realized he had been through something that made him stronger.
Blink 6 – Freedom and a New Start
On the morning of December 15, 2022, it happened: Boris Becker was released from prison. After eight months in prison, he was allowed to leave early. The condition was that he leave Great Britain. The release was done quietly. Officials took him to a small airport. From there, he flew to Germany with Lilian. On the plane, he slowly understood it was over. No more clanking doors, no more strict routines, no more cell. He cried like a small child.
He and Lilian first stayed in a friend’s guest apartment. Small, simple, and clean. After months behind walls, even the simplest things felt amazing: the smell of coffee, fresh air, an open door, real, warm pizza! And: Lilian was by his side. For both, it was a new start. Not a big, showy one, but a quiet one.
They spent Christmas and New Year with Lilian’s family on São Tomé. This is an island off the west coast of Africa where she grew up. It was an emotional time, full of warmth, family, and everyday life. The months in prison were a turning point. It was the end of a life ruled by speed, ambition, and control.
Becker now wants to live a quieter life. More aware and more independent. No headlines, no cameras, and most importantly: no more court cases. He and Lilian moved to Milan and started their new life.
Summary
His time in prison forced Boris Becker to accept quietness. He had to accept his mistakes and change his priorities. He realized that true strength comes not from success, but from knowing yourself. The former champion seems more mature. He is not unharmed, but he is determined to live his life more thoughtfully.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/inside-de