‘I’ve learnt a hard lesson’ – Boris Becker gives first interview since leaving prison

Boris Becker has given his first media interview since leaving prison in the UK last week and his subsequent deportation to Germany.

Speaking to broadcaster Sat 1, with excerpts published in the newspaper Bild and reported by the Guardian, the former world No 1 said: “I believe I rediscovered the human in me, the person I once was.

“I’ve learnt a hard lesson – a very expensive one, a very painful one – but the whole thing has taught me something very important and worthwhile, and some things happen for a good reason.”

He added that his celebrity had meant nothing, saying: “In prison you are a nobody. You are only a number. Mine was A2923EV. I wasn’t called Boris, I was a number, and nobody gives a shit who you are.”

Becker served eight months of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for failing to declare assets following his bankruptcy.

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