Boris Becker has opened up about his “brutal” prison experience in the UK.
The three-time Wimbledon champion, 55, was jailed for two and a half years last April for hiding £2.5million of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.
He was released from prison in December after serving eight months.
Becker told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast: “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 said inmates would fight for survival “every day” which forced him to surround himself with “tough boys” for protection.
“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.”
His incarceration “humbled” him, the German said, adding: “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.”
Mr Becker was deported to Germany and barred from the UK following his release.
The first part of his sentence was served at London’s HMP Wandsworth.
He was later transferred to Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire, where he was “surrounded by murderers, drug dealers, and people smugglers”.
