Boris Becker was in a British prison for just eight months. And yet he went through a lot during this time: a threatened rape, fear of death, a tearful reconciliation and camaraderie among men. Some of his fellow inmates have become friends.
According to his own words, tennis legend Boris Becker was threatened with death in his prison in Great Britain. There was a situation in October "with a prisoner who wanted to kill me," said Becker, who was released from prison last week, in an interview broadcast on Sat.1 in the evening.
The fellow prisoner, who had been in prison for 16 years for murder, wanted to get his hands on his laundry and also "explained verbally everything that he would watch with me". The fellow prisoner underestimated that Becker had the solidarity of the other prisoners because of his position in prison, said the former tennis pro. Ten other prisoners told the fellow prisoner that he had to go now or else he would be beaten.
In tears, Becker described how a reconciliation had come about the next day. The man threw himself on the ground in front of him and kissed his hand. He then picked up the man, hugged him and told him that he had great respect for him. As Becker said, he had become friends with several fellow prisoners in Huntercombe prison near London.
For his 55th birthday he received three cakes from fellow prisoners. He didn't even experience that in freedom, said Becker. "They had to take some of their tight money and give it to me." He then ate the cakes with others for days. Prison is "a different world. You really are the same." He had "never experienced such solidarity with other people in the wild," said Becker. "When you've really fought to survive together, that brings you together." He will certainly keep in touch with some of his fellow inmates. "We needed each other," said Becker. Becker was released from prison last week after a little less than eight months in prison and deported to Germany. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Becker, who looked significantly slimmer than he did before imprisonment, also reported feeling hungry while in prison. "Of course I lost a lot of weight," he said in an interview with moderator Steven Gätjen. "I went to prison with 97 kilos and then had almost 90 kilos." Becker added: "I felt hungry for the first time in my life, so I went to bed hungry. I thought that at the age of 54 I had already experienced everything, but this was new." In prison he did not drink alcohol, did not smoke and ate very little for weeks or maybe months. "The prison stay was certainly good for my health."
