The German tennis legend Boris Becker is becoming a father again. His wife Lilian is expecting their first child together. It is Becker’s fifth child by four different mothers, bringing his eventful love life back into the spotlight.
“A little miracle is on the way,” the 57-year-old Becker wrote on Instagram together with his 23-year-younger wife, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro. The couple announced the joyful news this week, right during the English tennis tournament Wimbledon.
For the German, the tournament is historically significant: in 1985, at the age of seventeen, he made history there as the youngest winner ever. Becker won a total of six Grand Slam titles: three Wimbledons, two Australian Opens, and one US Open. With his attacking game and powerful serve, he became one of the most famous tennis players of his generation.
Becker has four children from previous relationships. In 1993, he married model Barbara Feltus. The couple had two sons: Noah (31) and Elias (26). The marriage ended because Becker made headlines due to the so-called ‘broom closet affair’ he had with Russian model Angela Ermakova. With her, he has a daughter, Anna (25). In 2009, Becker married the Dutch Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Kerssenberg. The couple has a now fourteen-year-old son, Amadeus.
Becker has been with Carvalho Monteiro since 2020. They married in Italy last year. Becker called their bond in an interview “the first equal relationship” he had ever experienced. According to him, it was her loyalty in difficult times that made their relationship special.
From center court to the courtroom
Because Becker has certainly known difficult times. The arrival of a fifth child follows a turbulent period in the life of the former top tennis player, in which he regularly made negative headlines. In 2017, Becker was declared bankrupt after he had not repaid a loan of 4.2 million euros for his villa in Mallorca. His fortune was once estimated at 150 million euros.
After the bankruptcy, Becker withheld assets from the curator, including bank accounts, real estate worth more than 1.5 million euros, and sports trophies. British justice then prosecuted him for bankruptcy fraud.
In 2022, he was sentenced to a prison sentence of 2.5 years, of which he served eight months. After his release, Becker expressed his desire to spend more time with his children, and he even hoped to expand his family.
Mapping family relationships
The bond with his children does not always seem to be as close. According to ex-wife Lilly, their son Amadeus heard through her in 2024 that his father would remarry, and he did not receive an invitation to the wedding with De Carvalho Monteiro.
Daughter Anna was also not asked, while his two eldest sons were present. According to German media, Becker’s current wife has a good relationship with Noah and Elias, and she was spotted next to Noah in the stands during Wimbledon in 2022.
Although Becker says he will no longer return financially to his former status, he is active again in the sport. He works as a coach, in the past for the Danish tennis player Holger Rune, makes a podcast about tennis and is regularly seen as a commentator at Eurosport.
The exact due date is still unknown. But Becker seems ready for a new chapter, this time not on grass or gravel, but in the nursery.