Lilly Becker says telling their son, 12, that Boris Becker is in jail was worst thing

Lilly Becker has admitted telling her son that his dad Boris Becker is in jail is the “worst thing” she has ever done.

Grand Slam champion Boris Becker has been jailed for two and a half years after hiding assets and debts worth more than £2.5 million after being declared bankrupt.

In an emotional interview, his estranged wife relived the “worst” moment she had to break the news to their 12-year-old son Amadeus.

“Telling our son his daddy was in jail is the worst thing I’ve ever had to do.” She told The Daily Mail.

“My instinct was to say it is as it is, ‘Your father is in jail. He has f***** up.’ But you can’t say that to a 12-year-old child, can you? Not when you are the mother, the Tiger Mother whose job on this earth is to protect that child.”

The Dutch model said the sentence come as a “shock” to everyone and she immediately sought advice from her friend, who teaches in a nursery, on how to gently tell her son “in a way that wasn’t too brutal for him”.

She added: “We told him in his playroom, where he feels safe. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do. I will never forget looking into his blue eyes — as blue as Boris’s — and watching them just go from left to right and back again. He was flabbergasted. He just couldn’t get a grip on it.”

But the mum said her son Amadeus was “doing better” now.

She explained her son has been asking questions about his dad, including “what will Papa be eating?” and “will he be able to watch films?”

Boris Becker and Lilly were married in 2009 but they separated in 2018 after nine years of marriage.