Boris Becker’s estranged wife has said he is “as good as can be” in prison as she revealed they are still married.
Dutch model Sharlely “Lilly” Becker told TalkTV the tennis star was doing “OK” at HMP Wandsworth - but that life inside the jail was “not a five-star hotel”.
The 45-year-old said she “completely broke down” after Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in jail on Friday for bankruptcy fraud.
She told Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because I was convinced, until the judge made her verdict, that he was going to get a little bit lighter than two and a half years.
“I had to keep it together and I don’t know how I did it.”
Ms Becker also revealed she is still married to the six-time Grand Slam champion, despite rumours of their divorce in 2018 after nine years of marriage.
“I’m very much still his wife,” she said. “Estranged wife as that may be but we’re still very much married and have been since we went our separate ways.
“It was from the beginning intense; it was a complete, true love story. Everyone who knows us knows this.
“It’s not that I don’t want to get a divorce - I think we should handle our business at the right time. This is not the right time.”
When asked whether she still loves Boris, she replied: “Of course I do.”
Ms Becker said the first person who reached out to her after Becker’s sentencing was his current girlfriend, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro.
“We all pulled together - the ex-wife, the kids, his current girlfriend Lilian - the first thing we did was reach out to each other”, she said.
“It’s hard because it’s public, it’s everywhere.
“It’s hard because everyone has an opinion about it, rightly so.
“I’m here to show everybody that he has a bunch of really strong women behind him, and who are here not to speak for him, but to protect him.”
Judge Deborah Taylor, sitting at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, gave the former six-time Grand Slam champion a 30-month prison sentence, of which he will serve half, for hiding £2.5million of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.
The 54-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion and former world number one was declared bankrupt on 21 June 2017, owing creditors almost £50m, over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Majorca, Spain.
The former BBC commentator transferred almost 427,000 euros (around £390,000) from his business account to others, including to Ms Becker and to his other ex-wife Barbara Feltus.
Ms Becker said telling their 12-year-old son two days after Becker was jailed was “the hardest thing” she has ever had to do.
“I had to break it down to him,” she said.
“We as a family had purposefully not spoken about the trial or anything.
“But I had no choice but to break my heart - or actually his heart - last Sunday.
“I don’t wish this upon anybody. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”
Ms Becker said her son was “dying” to see his father, and she hoped they can visit him in jail.
Speaking about Becker, she said: “Thank God his mental health is so strong and he’s probably prepared for these moments.
“Because life with Boris is never boring, it’s headline after headline.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
