Disgraced tennis ace Boris Becker has hugged his mother for the first time since being released from prison.
Becker, 55, and partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro visited Elvira, 87 in Leimen, Germany, on December 21.
Becker was released from prison on December 15 and immediately deported to his home country. He is not currently allowed to return to the UK, where his 22-year-old daughter Anna Ermakova lives.
Elvira had previously told German media: ‘We’ve always got along well. No matter what happens – he is and will always be my son.’
Becker, picture with mother Elvira, was released from prison on December 15 after 231 days. They happily reunited in Leimen, Germany after his release (pictured last year)
Boris Becker revealed he was threatened by murderers while in prison in an interview with German TV channel Sat1
Becker in a televised interview that a murderer tried to kill him in prison because he was friends with black inmates.
The disgraced tennis star, 55, said he was terrified during his weeks-long stay in HMP Wandsworth where he was sharing his block with killers, rapists and paedophiles.
The Wimbledon ace, who was convicted for bankruptcy earlier this year, said he was a ‘nobody’ in jail and was lucky to escape unharmed.
He told Germany‘s Sat TV as part of his controversial £435,000 interview following his deportation: ‘[The convicted murderer] wanted to kill me. He couldn’t accept that I was friends with black inmates.
He has returned to Leimen where his elderly mother Elvira, 87, lives and the family have been reunited (pictured in 2019)
‘He underestimated that other inmates would come to my help and threaten him.’
Separately in the interview, Becker said a man named Ike cornered him in prison and only escaped when his screams alerted fellow inmates who ‘saved his life’.
He said: ‘And then the next day Ike asked if I would accept his apology. I could have rejected it.
‘I encountered him in the laundry. He threw himself down to the ground and begged me for forgiveness.
‘I raised him to his feet and hugged him. And I told him that I had great respect for him.’
The documentary began with Becker filmed emerging from a blacked out people carrier at the TV studios in Munich with his painter and musician son Noah and girlfriend Lilian.
Dressed in black they are seen walking into the Sat 1 studio, with interviewer Steven Gatjen talking over pictures of Huntercombe where he had visited Becker with Lilian twelve days ago and spent two hours with him under the supervision of four guards.
When Becker went to HMP Wandsworth he said he dressed like ‘a gangster’ to protect himself, but the clothes were taken off him beforehand
After a few weeks in HMS Wandsworth, the tennis ace was moved to HMP Huntercombe (pictured) a Category C prison in Oxfordshire
Sat 1 editor in chief Julian Esling, who was also on the visit, said: ‘Lilian can speak many languages, including English, German and Portuguese and can switch to really good German. She and Boris seemed very familiar and in love.’
The disgraced sports star explained how he had ‘given press the slip’ by staying with friends in southern Germany and avoiding public places and hotels.
Becker said: ‘I was with good friends in southern Germany, and I have great friends but they don’t want to be named. No newspaper was able to find me and I was able to hide there with them for a bit.
‘We had to be very difficult and we didn’t go to any public places and I held back a bit until we came to Munich for the interview. We didn’t play hide and seek any more but it worked out and so far no one has been able to get a picture of me.
The interview properly began with Becker sat at a table opposite the host, appearing noticeable slimmer than when he was sentenced in April, he said: ‘First of all, thank you for the invitation and of course I was guilty.’
He added: ‘I went to jail weighing 97 kilograms and later I was 90kg but since then a few kilograms have been added. Prison was good for my health, there was no alcohol except home-made schnapps.
Becker also revealed how he sort spiritual help during his trial and said: ‘I went to church every day to pray.’
The interview then cut to Lilian who was sat nearby and Becker broke down in tears, as he revealed how the day he was sentenced was also her birthday.
He said: ‘I took the opportunity and bought her white roses but it was a sad day for me and for us. It couldn’t have been written more unbelievably.’
Blinking back tears he added: ‘My lawyer came around 2pm to tell me to be ready, as there was a verdict. Lilian and Noah came with me and we all hugged each other for a long time because I knew that after the verdict I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye.
‘The stand in the court goes straight down into the basement behind a glass screen and you are then taken away. It doesn’t get any more brutal than that.’
Becker pictured in April at Southwark Crown Court, just before he was jailed
Asking for a few seconds to compose himself, Becker added: ‘I told Lilian. ‘My love, you don’t have to wait for me. I don’t know how long I will have to go to prison for.’
‘She looked at me and said: “Boris, we are a team and you are my partner.” She looked at me and hugged me saying “Don’t talk s**t”.’
Becker then recalled how when he first arrived at HMP Wandsworth after being found guilty and said: ‘I just looked at the floor a lot. I didn’t want to look anyone in the eye and upset them.
‘It was extremely dangerous and extremely dirty. It’s just cell after cell and you meet all sorts in there, all criminals from London, murderers, child molesters, drug dealers and rapists.
‘I was body searched, because they look for drugs and parts of mobile telephones and then my picture was taken and some people wanted to have their picture taken with me.’
He added: ‘I had two big concerns, one was a double cell, sharing a cell with someone who could attack you or threaten you and then the shower cubicles.
‘You close the door, take your clothes off and look behind you, it’s not human. You have seen the films and dropping the soap but then the governor explained to me and that it would be safe, so I was grateful to him.
Becker went on: ‘That was my home in HMP Wandsworth, there are no mirrors in the cell because you can break it and use it as a weapon but when I moved to Huntercombe and I saw myself in the mirror I was shocked at how I looked.’
When asked what he had taken with him to jail Becker said: ‘I wanted to look cool, so I had a hoodie, to look like a gangster for protection and a baseball cap, everything was black.
‘But I was told “nice try” and I was given grey jogging pants and a grey sweatshirt but they were all too small. The main thing is not to be noticed in prison.’
Becker revealed that he thought he ‘I would lose my life in Wandsworth’ in his interview with Sat TV
He added: ‘When the cell door is slammed shut at 8pm, no one told me when it would open again and that’s when your whole world collapses and you are alone with your thoughts. I was desperate, I was afraid and I bought some books with me to read.
‘The food was always the same during the week rice and potatoes but on Sunday we would get a roast, usually chicken.’
Becker revealed he taught English and German in Huntercombe and said: ‘Having a job was important in prison, it made my life easier.’
It also emerged in the hour long interview that Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp had asked to visit him: ‘We are good friends and I gave his name to the authorities but then they came back and said that he couldn’t come as he was too famous and they were concerned for his safety.
‘I was allowed two visits a month and I had to give these names to the authorities so they could be checked out but it is a very slow process. The first time Lilian came she said she was shocked at how I looked – although she only told me that later.’
Becker explained how all his money in prison went on soap, showergel, toothpaste and telephone calls but as he only had £7 a week it didn’t go very far.
‘I had to get Lilian to call my mother and my children and my agent.
‘Then a priest came to visit and I asked him to help me call my mother as it was Mother’s Day in Germany, I told him I couldn’t do it from my cell so I spoke with her and I told her “I’m alive. I’m fine” I told her that she didn’t need to worry, that was a lie of course but I didn’t want to upset her.’
Becker said the day the verdict was announced was his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro’s birthday
Becker also revealed how he was flooded with letters from fans and friends including one from arch rival and fellow tennis player Micheal Stich.
The two won gold at the Barcelona Olympics doubles in 1992 and he said:’ That was a real surprise when I got his letter. I just didn’t expect that. It gave me strength, it was real sportsmanship and we forget our rivalry. It was a very strong gesture of support, an emotional ace.’
For his 55th birthday last month Becker revealed: ‘I got three cakes. I don’t know how it happened, I don’t even get three cakes when I was free on the outside, let alone in prison. They were three chocolate cakes and I shared them with my prison buddies.
‘You stick together with your fellow inmates, you share clothes, shoes, salt, chocolate. I believe that I will remain connected to some of my inmates forever. When you have fought for survival together, that brings you together. We needed each other.’
Speaking about his children he said: ‘I am very proud of them. I spoke to them as often as I could and they came to visit but not the youngest, I didn’t want a 12-year-old child to visit me. I don’t know if I could take it, if he hugged me and the guard then took him away.
Boris Becker’s mother Elvira was seen for the first time in public on Tuesday just ahead of her son’s controversial £435,000 interview with German TV station Sat 1
When asked how he felt when his partner visited his voice broke as he replied: ‘That was the nicest two hours of the week, when she came but then when the door closed as she left…’
Taking a deep breath he added: ‘I was never afraid that our love would not survive. We always faced that, I don’t know hoe we managed it but we tried to speak at least once a day.
‘We held hands over the phone and it was only through her love and strength that I survived.’
Holding up a book on Stoic philosophy course he took in Huntercombe, Becker said: ‘This was my prison bible, prison made me a better person. Being inside was the worst time of my life. It may sound strange but maybe I needed that. I was able to see my mistakes.
‘I trusted the wrong people and in the end I got lazy. Jail time brought me back, it gave me a second chance. Now it’s up to me to continue this path, that’s why I think prison was good for me.’
Becker was also asked if was ever aware of how much money he had and replied: ‘No, I thought I could trust the people in my life. Money has never been my motivation. I earned my first million when I was 17 years old and even then I forgot to collect my prize money. Money has never had any value for me.
‘I was able to pay my bills until 2017 and then there was a dispute with a private bank, it was over about 3.5 million Euros, the bank was proved right in court and I was declared bankrupt and the clock stopped ticking.
‘I still had some good income, which was unusual for an insolvent but I lost my place in Majorca, my apartment in Chelsea and my parents house in Leimen.
‘In the end I managed to pay back around 16 million Euro but the problem was I still wanted to live the same way I did when I was a tennis star and I just didn’t have the salary to match the expense.’
Becker revealed how earlier this month he was told he could leave prison on December 15 as part of a Home Office scheme to deport non UK nationals from prisons to ease numbers.
Becker said that he has ‘learned a lot’ from his time in prison and thinks he is ‘a better man’ than he was before
He said: ‘The governor told me I have good news for you Mr Becker you can leave on your private plane. I packed my things the day before and I gave some stuff away, I must have given 50 books to the prison library.
‘I only told a small circle of people that I was being released. I didn’t pay for the jet. I couldn’t afford it, a friend paid and we flew to Stuttgart.
‘I told my friend he didn’t have to do that but he insisted, he wanted to make sure I got home safely and he arranged it all.
‘The authorities wanted to check the flight plan to make sure I didn’t go to Scotland or Ireland and we flew to Stuttgart.
‘Before I left I was given a bodysearch again, a flashlight was shone up my….’
He added: ‘When we landed in Stuttgart, I showed my passport and I thought there would be press there but there was no one, obviously the police recognised me as I had to show my passport but no one else was there.
‘Some friends drove me to Heidelberg and we stayed there, my first taste of freedom was in someone else’s apartment and I had my first beer there as a free man. Believe me that was the best beer of my life.
‘My first meal of freedom was sushi and miso soup but I only had small portions as you don’t shake off prison life that easily.
‘Physically I also wasn’t doing very well and on Saturday and Sunday I had to visit two doctors in Munich, they put me straight, gave me an injection and now I am fine.’
Drawing the interview to an end Becker was asked if he planned to marry Lilian and what the future held for him.
Taking a sip from a glass of water, he replied: ‘She is not sitting far from us and she is very, smart and intelligent. I listen to her carefully. Shew told me not to say anything about our private life but yes she is the great love of my life and I hope I will always be with her.
‘As for the future, I hope to be surrounded by my children and I hope there will be a few more. Everything that motivates me is powered by my children. I hope that I can spend the rest of my life in peace and freedom. I’m happy and I motivated. I have to work and I don’t feel bad about that.
‘I’ve learned a lot the last eight months and I think I have become a better man that I was before. I don’t know if I will stay in Europe.
‘Hopefully I have another 25 years ahead of me but I can’t say where I am going now, I don’t think I will stay in Germany or even Europe, maybe I will go to Miami but I am also a big fan of Dubai. I have become cautious with my statements for the future.’