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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel sorry for Boris Becker?

111 replies

dottiedodah · 29/04/2022 19:31

I dont know why ,but I just felt a bit sorry for him .I know he has behaved badly and squandered money he was supposed to use towards his creditors .But he just seemed so beaten somehow ,from Wimbledon to Prison .Such a fall from grace . YABU He deserves all he gets. Yanbu Feel sorry for him harsh treatment.

OP posts:
comealongponds · 29/04/2022 20:53

YABU

He has only himself to blame, and doesn’t seem to take any responsibility for his actions, which have been deliberately deceitful, why would anyone feel sorry for him?

TheVanguardSix · 29/04/2022 20:56

Of course, I have a teeny bit of sympathy. He was the GOAT when I was a teen and he was my favourite player when I was growing up.
But God almighty SINCE then? He's been a goddamn trainwreck in a nice suit.
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. It's total arrogance on his part.
He's done it to himself.

Libertaire · 29/04/2022 20:57

YABU.

I’m old enough to remember Boris diving around Wimbledon like a goalkeeper in a penalty shoot-out, and it’s a shame how his post-tennis life has turned out, but the people I feel sorry for are the ordinary people he has ripped off. I read today that he owed the builders who renovated his Villa in Mallorca €300,000.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 29/04/2022 21:09

he does look puffy in the face but that might be due to not sleeping?

SpiderinaWingMirror · 29/04/2022 21:09

He is likeable.
But no, his actions show arrogance and contempt. When I think of people I know that have faced bankruptcy and lost the little they had, or done an iva and lived hand to mouth, I can't feel sorry for him.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 29/04/2022 21:10

he rents a house in wimbledon at £22,000 a month!

cptartapp · 29/04/2022 21:11

Never liked him since he refused to accept his DD (who was the spitting image of him) was his, until paternity tests proved otherwise. Conceived in a broom cupboard too IIRC. Nasty man.

Clymene · 29/04/2022 21:12

He's a thief

Pedallleur · 29/04/2022 21:18

Architect of his own downfall. From his quickie in a cupboard to going to jail.

Starseeking · 29/04/2022 21:22

I haven't felt an ounce of sympathy for him since he denied his DD who was conceived in NOBU broom cupboard...then we all saw her 2 year old face on the front of the NOTW and Mail on Sunday and she was his twin! She looked more like him than his DC from marriage.

I hope he developed a good relationship with his DD following, because the circumstances of her birth were awful (apparently he'd left his heavily pregnant wife in a hotel to go out drinking!).

He sent money off to lots of people in a bid to avoid his creditors, so he deserves everything he gets.

CathyorClaire · 29/04/2022 21:25

He bought an undoubtedly overpriced holdall in Harrods the day before he was sentenced for fraudulent activity in his bankruptcy proceedings,

Says it all even before taking the broom cupboard eyebrow raiser into account.

Andyouwithyourautumnsweater · 29/04/2022 21:25

He'll likely be out in 15 months

DramaAlpaca · 29/04/2022 21:26

I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.

cornflakedreams · 29/04/2022 21:34

If prison was effective as a deterrent they'd be almost empty. The British prison system only perpetrates greater harm against society.

That aside, I don't agree that famous or "successful" people should be above the law, which is the premise of the op.

Squealier · 29/04/2022 21:43

On a minnow level I sort of relate to BB in that I have earned a lot but can always, always spend more. It's like a compulsion. I mean, I keep my spending under control (no debt apart from mortgage) but the impulse is always there.

So rather than condemning him/ pitying him I am fascinated. Why is nothing ever enough for him? I'd love to understand.

Maurepas · 29/04/2022 21:46

He was declared bankrupt in 2017 owing creditors about GBP50 million but the actual debt was about GBP3million originally from what I can gather, but he had loans charging 25% interest - as in one from billionaire John Caudwell for GBP1,250.000 according to papers. He needed a good accountant!

Userg1234 · 29/04/2022 21:49

So you want to feel sorry for a man who spent all his money, then spent other people's money....or didn't pay for things they provided.
Then hid what he had left so not to pay those debts. How morally is that in anyway acceptable?

SirGawain · 29/04/2022 21:55

Aquamarine1029 · 29/04/2022 20:32

I'll save my sympathy for someone who deserves it. He's a shithead.

Couldn't have put it better!

tobee · 29/04/2022 21:55

He was an entertaining player (when he could be bothered, he couldn’t always) and an entertaining commentator. But so much of his off court life has been terrible.

CaptainMyCaptain · 29/04/2022 21:56

YABU. I don't feel sorry for him at all. Would you feel sorry for him if it was you he owed money to?

Squealier · 29/04/2022 21:56

I couldn't care less about tennis but it is fascinating when a gifted person fucks their life up.

Original poster
dottiedodah · 29/04/2022 22:00

cornflakedreams I didnt mean that wealthy /successful people should be above the law.just that it seemed sad that he had such a fall from grace is all . He obv should have paid his debts like everyone else .just a feeling of him hitting rock bottom

OP posts:
tigger1001 · 29/04/2022 22:05

I don't feel sympathy for him. He comes across very arrogantly. He thought he was above the law. He wasn't.

SirGawain · 29/04/2022 22:05

Becker's barrister Jonathan Laidlaw QC told the court the tennis star's "fall from grace" had left "his reputation in tatters".

Exactly where is deserves to be!

ThinWomansBrain · 29/04/2022 22:07

so you still hold him in high esteem after fathering a child after five minute sex in a broom cupboard?
maybe it was the childcare costs after that that made him bankrupt?
diddums - poor Boris

do you think it's something to do with the name? If you're about to have a child, don't call it Boris.