Lilly Becker’s son Amadeus turned 13 two months after his father – the tennis legend Boris – got out of prison. So much to celebrate.
The second Mrs. Becker, still married to the embarrassed champion, confesses that she has gone a little overboard, as her son has “been through a lot.”
“I wanted to give Amadeus the best party ever. I threw everything at it, to the point where I had to say, ‘Don’t think you’re going to have this every year. You don’t have a party like that until you’re 18 or 21.”
“I invited every child to his class. I rented a red carpet, a limo, people acting like paparazzi snapping at him and his friends as they got out. I turned our backyard into a nightclub with lights and a bar. We had entertainers, a belly dancer with a snake, makeup artists. Thirteen of the children stayed over and the next day we all went paintballing. Then another slumber party.
“It went on all weekend, and by the end my house was a mess and I had pooped, but you know what? It was worth it just to see that big smile on his face. That was the intention. I didn’t want him to have time to think about anything but what a great time he had and how loved he was.’
The second Lilly Becker (pictured), who is still married to the embarrassed champ, confesses that she went a little overboard, as her son had ‘been through a lot’
Pictured: Lilly, Boris and their son Amadeus who turned 13 two months after his father – the tennis legend – got out of prison
Dare we mention Boris? He was clearly not in London for the soda pouring, as he had been deported from the UK immediately after his release. But did he at least compete for the belly dancer? Sending a huge gift?
Lilly won’t let herself be drawn, but she rolls her eyes.
Clearly, shockwaves swept the world when Boris Becker – still a hero to millions – actually went to prison, found guilty of concealing £2.5 million in assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case.
He served eight months of his two and a half year sentence and came out of prison to give a slew of emotional interviews about how the “cruel” experience had made him a “better man.”
“You fight to survive every day,” Boris said, waxing lyrical about tennis player surrounded by murderers, drug dealers, rapists, people smugglers. “Quick, you need to surround yourself with the tough guys, as I would call them, because you need protection.”
His prison sentence “humiliated” him, he said. “I’ve taken the incarceration, but I’ve also taken the credit, and at least this has made me a stronger, better man.”
He is now building the “third chapter” of his life, he said, looking up, ahead, ahead.
Applause? Well, he certainly won’t get anything from his estranged wife – she’s busy building a new life for herself and her son in Clapham, having had to leave their previous home in Wimbledon, the site of Boris’ greatest sporting triumphs .
I’ve interviewed Lilly several times. She cussed and cried and slammed the table in rage at our last meeting nearly a year ago, when he’d just been sent to prison, still in shock at how disappointed she felt with him, unprepared for what was to come.
They had broken up when Amadeus was eight – her decision, she says today. And while he’d never been in the running for a Father of the Year award, he’d been a big part of his son’s life, and she thought that was a good thing.
However, when he was imprisoned, she felt she had to “fix the mess, pick up all the pieces.” This included telling their distraught and confused son why his father was in prison and trying to comfort him.
I then asked how she thought Boris would survive inside. Perhaps he would emerge a changed person, one desperate to make amends?
Perhaps the three of them could sit together, and Boris – who has three other children, to two other women – would go out of his way to explain everything to his son in person.
She scoffed and said he would show up at a series of book deals and offers to “tell his story.” He would ultimately prevail ‘because that’s what Boris Becker does’.
“Prison hasn’t changed him,” she said. “Boris got out of jail doing the whole ‘I’m so humble’ thing. But it’s a constant stream of Me, Me, Me. Give me a break.’
Boris Becker with Lilly and their son Amadeus at the Cartier Queens Cup Final at Smiths Lawn Windsor Great Park Berkshire on June 15, 2014
When he was released, he gave a long interview on German TV, which she didn’t want to watch, but her new boyfriend – who is German – did.
“Thank goodness for the Peleton bike. I went upstairs and went on with it for an hour, but he was still talking when I got back down, and I just kinda caught where he was crying. Fake tears. Embarrassing actually. Did he take acting classes in prison? It made me laugh. I know this man. I was married to this man. I am still married to this man. Boris cares about nobody but Boris.’
Then there was a magazine interview where he commented on how it takes an intelligent couple to co-parent a child. He was talking about his first wife Barbara [Felthus]who never spoke out and challenged his version, his story.
“He seemed to forget I was married to him all these years, so the three of us co-parented.”
Then he started talking about his new girlfriend, about how she is the great love of his life. What? How many can you have? No respect for her – I’m happy for them, honestly – but how can he talk to the world about the great love of his life when the person who should be the love of his life, his son, was barely mentioned. ‘
Dutch-born Lilly Becker, model, TV presenter, proud mother, was always the fiery type – ironically, it is one of the qualities that Boris finds most attractive. But today, at 46 years old, she is combative, tired, protective and – oh Boris, your timing was spectacularly bad – also going through the menopause.
“Amadeus is a teenager, so full of hormones, and I’m in perimenopausal so full of hormones too. When I start to lose it, Amadeus says ‘Mama, your hormones!’.
Boris Becker of Germany raises his arms to celebrate his defeat of Kevin Curren in the men’s singles final of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship on July 7, 1985
She never intended to become a single mother. Even when she and Boris broke up, she still wanted him in her life and that of her son.
‘Naturally! A son needs a father. Even today Amadeus asks me to wrestle with him. What!? I can’t wrestle. I mean, I’m trying, but a son needs a father.’
It is rather sad to hear her talk about her life with Boris, which was wonderful, exciting and full of wealth. She loved him dearly, but tellingly she also thought they were soul mates. “He was my best friend,” she says. “And a woman doesn’t give up easily.”
Their divorce was messy, complicated by egos, geography, arguments over money, but somehow they got through it.
There was a strange public row, but it still worked.
‘And co-parenting is of course possible. Many people do. Even if Boris isn’t allowed in the UK, there are always ways around that. They can meet halfway – literally. People do. I don’t care if Boris lives in Timbuktu, he can still see his son.’
It has been reported that Boris now lives in Italy.
‘I don’t know where he is. He seems to be moving a lot. I didn’t expect things to change when he got out of prison, but I was actually hoping that maybe he’d appreciate the fact that I had to clean up his mess. A thank you would have been great. Instead, I got the opposite: jokes from his many interviews.
‘I didn’t ask for much. Someone should have given him a book on co-parenting in prison. He would have had time to read it. He could have learned something.’
In our chat she is funny and self-deprecating and tells me that – after much discussion – she has agreed to make a documentary HER tells the full story, which will be broadcast very soon. ‘Why not?’ she says when I ask why make a documentary now.
‘Boris gets to tell HIS story. He can be a little against me. He is allowed to be selective about which parts he puts there. It’s all glory, glory, glory, the eighties, and then it jumps to now.’
Every time her ex pops up in the media and takes another step on his path to rehab and Brand Boris’s recovery, it’s an “oof” moment for Lilly, akin to Boom Boom Becker’s full force going first. .
However, isn’t it true that the public still loves Boris Becker despite everything?
“Yes,” she says. And believe me, I get it. Thank God, I get it. He is a fantastic tennis player, a legend. He won grand slam tournaments. But let’s not promote fatherhood through him. Please!’
This brings us neatly onto the other thing that Boris Becker is famous for. He has two adult sons – Noah and Elias, from his first marriage to Barbara Felthus. But there’s also his so-called broom closet baby, Anna Ermakova, who was famously conceived in 1999 at a London restaurant Nobu during a brief sexual encounter that made headlines around the world.
Now 23, Anna appears to be on good terms with her father (she wrote a supportive statement at his trial), but Lilly is shocked that Boris is so quick to refer to the circumstances of her conception.
“That broom closet thing—he STILL talks on like he’s proud of it. I don’t like how he talked about Anna. He doesn’t stop to think how it affects this girl, how her mother Angela must feel. She has my utmost respect. She then had to hold her head high.
“I also don’t think it’s respectful to his other children that he talks about that. Enough about the broom closet!’
What on earth will their son make of this debacle when he is old enough to judge the situation? Will she let him watch her documentary? ‘Absolute. I’m making it for Amadeus so he can see the truth of it. My truth!’
Did Amadeus watch the documentary his father was involved in? No he has not.
“But that could be a good father-son moment,” she says.
TREE!