Overview
- In a Daily Telegraph interview reported on Saturday Becker said he feels Germans act as if they own him and that he has no intention of living in Germany again.
- Becker has lived in Milan with his wife Lilian and their infant daughter Zoe since moving there after his 2023 relocation and says he feels freer and less watched in Italy.
- His refusal to return follows his 2022 UK conviction on insolvency-related charges, a two-and-a-half-year sentence of which he served about eight months before being deported to Germany.
- Becker says roughly 90–95% of his former friends vanished after his imprisonment and that his family uses a 'warning system' to screen contacts to protect their privacy and safety.
- His remarks point to the long reach of the fame he won as a 17-year-old Wimbledon champion in 1985 and could deepen public debate in Germany about how the country treats public figures after scandal.