Lilly Becker has revealed telling her 12-year-old son about his father being jail was the “worst thing” she has ever had to do.
“It’s always the women who have to clean up the mess,” she told the Daily Mail.
Boris Becker, the former three-time Wimbledon tennis champion, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for hiding £2.5m in assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.
The 54-year-old was declared bankrupt in 2017 and owed almost £50m over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Mallorca, Spain.
Boris and Lilly Becker were married for nine years and have a son called Amadeus but announced their separation in 2018.
Ms Becker realised she would have to break the news to their son who was not aware his father had been facing a trial at Southwark Crown Court last month.
Image: Lilly Becker and her son Amadeus in 2017, when he was seven-years-old
“My instinct was to say it as it is – your father is in jail. He has f***ed up…But you can’t say that to a 12-year-old child, can you?”
The Dutch model asked a family friend to help her explain the situation to her son in a way that was not too brutal.
“We told him in his play room, where he feels safe. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do,” she told the Mail.
“I will never forget looking into his blue eyes, as blue as Boris’s, and watching them just go from left to right and back again.
“He was flabbergasted. He just couldn’t get a grip on it.”
Image: Becker arriving at Southwark Crown Court with his new partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro
German-born Becker had been detained at Wandsworth prison, only a few miles away from his ex-wife’s home in Wimbledon.
The former world number one tennis player has been transferred to HMP Huntercombe in Oxfordshire according to The Times.
Read more: Boris Becker will have to ‘rely on charity of others to survive’ after he is released from jail, says lawyer Djokovic ‘heartbroken’ for former coach after he was jailed for hiding assets
It is a prison used to detain foreign criminals, indicating he may be deported from the UK at the end of his sentence.
Ms Becker, 45, added: “I know [Amadeus had] been Googling… I can’t stop him, can I?
“Amadeus is doing better now. He’s asking questions – What will Papa be eating? Will he be able to watch films?”
Becker is reported to have complained about the food and lack of hygiene in prison.
