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Convicted tennis player Boris Becker is seen for the first time since being released from prison, and his first date was with a hairdresser to dye his silver locks strawberry blonde, MailOnline can reveal.
The footage obtained exclusively reveals how the three-time Wimbledon champion went for the dramatic makeover as he sat down for a controversial £435,000 paid interview with German television.
The last photo of him before today was taken in April when he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail at Southwark Crown Court and showed him thicker, with a mass of white hair.
Becker, 55, sat down with German TV presenter Steven Gatjen for the hour-long interview which, as MailOnline revealed earlier this week, will air on Sat1 tonight.
Convicted tennis player Boris Becker is seen for the first time since his release from prison, his first date being with a hairdresser to dye his silver locks brilliant blonde.
In addition to the German TV interview, Becker has also signed a deal with Apple TV+ and several book deals are in the pipeline.
British broadcasters are also said to be interested in having the interview with the show distributed in London via Red Arrow Productions with an insider saying: “There has been considerable interest and talks are ongoing but any announcement would come from the channels”.
In the images released before the broadcast, Becker appears thinner and his hair is longer and he is dressed in a black top.
He tells how he feared being sent to a cell shared with ‘rapists and murderers’ after initially being sent to Category B HMP Wandsworth following his conviction.
He was then transferred to Category C HMP Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire for the remainder of his jail time before being released and flown back to Germany by private plane by the television station.
Since then he has not been seen in public and is said to be hiding in a luxury hotel near Munich while the final editing of the documentary is carried out.
But there has been a bitter backlash against the decision to pay £435,000 for the interview with viewers complaining on the TV channel and on social media.
The furious Jorg Gaffrey wrote on Sat1’s Twitter profile: ‘It’s a mess to offer a criminal this stage and pay so much money, rather donate the much more sensible money.’
While another barged in: ‘How can you throw money down a criminal’s throat? It’s all sensationalism, I hope the ratings are zero. Pathetic.’
Uwe Thamm said: ‘You should do interviews with people who have worked hard for 40 years and now have trouble making ends meet!
And not with some pompous asshole named Becker being held accountable for cheating!!!’
‘Another said: ‘Sat1 must be crazy shelling out so much money for an ex-con!
‘How many homeless people would be best served with this amount?’
While a blunt editorial in the respected Westfalsiche Rundschau criticized the TV station, saying: ‘Boris Becker is not a hero but a convicted criminal.
‘It’s perverse how a criminal is courted here in the media in Germany and millions are thrown at him.
‘Any honest, law-abiding person would just shake their head.’
A Sat1 spokesperson told MailOnline they would not discuss the fee saying: “Trust is a valuable asset in cooperation and this includes Sat1 not being quoted in the contracts.”
While Becker’s lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, would only say cryptically in an email: “My client doesn’t get paid to talk about his crimes.”
He has not returned to Leimen, where his elderly mother Elvira, 87, lives and who was alone in her house today after a food delivery man on wheels entered (in the photo of 2019)
In addition to the German TV interview, Becker has also signed a deal with Apple TV+ and several book deals are on the way, as well as a lucrative job with his home country’s tennis federation.
Bankrupt Becker is barred from doing business in Germany until 2031 due to bankruptcy proceedings against him, but will funnel profits from the gold mine through a company set up by his girlfriend Lilian de Carvalho Montiero.
The high risk financial analyst was by his side during the trial earlier this year in Southwark and is now believed to be with him in Germany.
He has set up a company in the UK called BFB Enterprises – Boris Franz Becker – and will let him keep the money he makes, although creditors in Germany are said to be looking for a way to get hold of it.
Becker, a father of five, was found guilty of concealing £2.5m worth of assets to avoid paying debts at his trial in Southwark and was released early under a special Home Office arrangement for prisoners foreign.
He has not returned to Leimen, where his elderly mother Elvira, 87, lives and who was home alone today after a food delivery man on wheels entered.
A carer who stopped by said: ‘She is doing well and looking forward to being with her son. She has no idea where she is, but they’ve talked on the phone.
Becker won his first Wimbledon title in 1985 when he was 17 and has won it twice more, as well as the US Open once and the Australian Open twice, earning more than $25 million in career prize money. 15 years old.
Before leaving Huntercombe last week, he gave away his clothing, including a baseball cap, flip-flops, a bathrobe and a T-shirt, to inmates who only brought photos of their family.