Boris Becker has detailed a terrifying confrontation with a violent new inmate and how fellow prisoners intervened to protect him during his 2022 stay at Huntercombe, the foreign nationals’ prison near Henley-on-Thames.
In excerpts serialised by the Daily Mail from his forthcoming memoir Inside (HarperCollins), Becker describes being threatened during a poker game and later confronted at close quarters by a man he says had been imprisoned for murder. According to the account, the attacker shouted: "I'm going to f*** you up. I'm going to break your head. I'm going to slit your throat. I'm going to kill you." Becker wrote that other inmates, including a neighbouring cellmate he calls Ike and a Sri Lankan man known as Shuggy, physically placed themselves between him and the newcomer and defused the incident.
Becker, who served part of a two-and-a-half-year sentence for offences under the Insolvency Act, said he was transferred to Huntercombe after a spell at Wandsworth. He recounted that overcrowding in British prisons meant foreign national prisoners were being offered deportation, which would allow them to serve half their sentence in their country of birth. Becker said he signed the forms to be reunited with his partner, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, for Christmas.
The former world No. 1 said he accepted an invitation to play poker with a group of Romanian inmates in September 2022, using matchsticks to represent money. After losing repeatedly to members of the group he said he was told he owed £500, a sum that represented months of his prison allowance. He described being warned by a Romanian he called Bogdan — whom Becker said had killed two men — and arranging for a transfer to settle the debt.
The more serious confrontation came later in the year when a man Becker identifies as Zac, whom other prisoners told him had killed a man and spent 17 years in custody, confronted him while Becker was carrying a tray of food. Becker wrote that Zac advanced toward him, clenched his fists and shouted threats. He said Shuggy and Ike moved in front of him and that several inmates came out of their cells to separate them. Ten minutes later, Becker said, Ike told him Zac would apologise.
Becker said the apology came in the laundry, where Zac knelt and kissed his hand, and later asked for a game of chess. Becker wrote that he let Zac win, calculating that such gestures were part of the informal rules of conduct and alliance-building in the wing. He described prison life as "an institution run by the prisoners," where protection and status among inmates shaped day-to-day safety.
He also recounted other moments during his custody: wardens who ran a gym and taught a Stoicism course, visits from his partner allowed three times a month, and attempts by friends to visit that were blocked on grounds of publicity. Becker said he took Stoic ideas to heart, later teaching the course at the request of a gym warden named Andy Small.
Becker described a surprised birthday celebration in prison in November 2022, when fellow inmates brought him three cakes and a handmade card. He wrote that the gesture — from men he described as "lost, dangerous, recovering and unrepentant" — prompted reflection and a resolve to change his life.
He recounted the logistical and security steps around his planned deportation. Becker said he was told the plan must be kept confidential: which private jet he would use, the airport of departure and arrival, and that the arrangement should not be publicised. He said he left Huntercombe on Thursday, Dec. 14, escorted to Biggin Hill airport, and that he and his partner landed in Stuttgart rather than the more widely reported Munich or Frankfurt, where photographers had gathered.
After his release, Becker wrote, he and Lilian moved to Italy. The memoir traces his attempts to rebuild his life following the prison term, the insolvency that precipitated it and the media attention that followed his return to Germany. He says he and Lilian married on the Italian Riviera in 2024.
The memoir also recounts visits and activities intended to help prisoners. Becker describes a talk he shared with former rival Pat Cash, organised by an Australian businessman’s foundation that promotes Stoicism in prisons. Becker wrote that both men had found value in the philosophy and spoke about how it had shaped their responses to adversity.
The excerpts emphasise the informal social structures Becker says govern safety inside the prison and the pragmatic choices inmates make to survive, from trading favours to accepting protection from stronger figures on the wing. Becker frames those experiences within his own broader reckoning over his personal conduct and public fall from wealth and fame.
Inside is due to be published on Sept. 25. The adaptation published in the Daily Mail is taken from that forthcoming book.