He was made to serve eight months of a two-and-half-year sentence for hiding £2.5M of loans and assets in a bankruptcy fraud case. He was released in September after his eight-month jail stint.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, he said:
“Whoever says that prison life isn’t hard and isn’t difficult, I think is lying.”
“It was a very brutal … a very, very different experience to what you see in the movies, what you’ve heard from stories.”
He also said that the inmates fought daily for survival. He also added that his status as a once-famous tennis player did not mean anything and that he was surrounded by “murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals”.
“You fight every day for survival. Quickly, you have to surround yourself with the tough boys, as I would call it because you need protection.”
He also said that the experience humbled him and called himself a survivor, saying:
“I’m a survivor; I’m a tough cookie. I’ve taken the incarceration, but I’ve also taken the glory, and if anything this made me a stronger, better man.”
Back in 1985, Becker became the youngest Wimbledon winner at just 17. He struggled with the business and finance side of his career and he said that he had probably received bad advice.
He is hoping to be able to return to commentating at Wimbledon. But as of now, he will not be able to return to the UK until October 2024.