Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker’ follows the rise and fall of the German tennis player’s career. He quickly became one of the most promising sports figures and soon won many championships. However, his personal life remained in turmoil and became fodder for the media to pick apart at every turn. The pressure of keeping up with his achievements took a toll on him, eventually leading to Becker’s downfall. The documentary reveals that Becker was married twice. His first marriage was to Barbara Becker, which ended after his affair. Later, Becker got married to Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Kerssenberg, but marital bliss evaded them, too.
Who is Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Kerssenberg?
Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on June 25, 1976, Sharlely “Lilly” Kerssenberg, now Becker, is a half-German, half-Surinamese actress and model. She is known for her work in several movies, like ‘Täglich frisch geröstet’ and ‘Die RTL Sommerspiele’, among others. Lilly married Becker in June 2009 and has one son with him.
Lilly’s parents died in a car accident in 1979 when she was just a child. She and her sister were brought up by her grandmother and other relatives. Lilly graduated from high school in 1992 and thought about making a career in modeling. In between this, she supported herself with different jobs, like bartending and hostess, and later got into modeling full-time.
Lilly first met Becker in September 2005 in an Italian restaurant in Miami Beach. She revealed that the former tennis star “didn’t dare to speak” to her personally the first time and sent his son Noah to initiate a conversation with her. The pair went on their first date two and a half months later. Their relationship ended in November 2007 when Becker called quits on it.
After a brief relationship and failed engagement with someone else, Becker came back to Lilly in 2009. He asked her to marry him while they were on a variety show called “Wetten dass..” (Bet you, in English.) Lilly and Becker’s son, Amadeus, was born in February 2010. The couple found things difficult when Becker’s poor financial situation came to light. He filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and separated from Lilly sometime after that.
While Becker’s legal bind pushed their relationship to its end, they confessed that things had been rocky for a while. Lilly talked about her state of mind when she discovered that they would lose everything. “I’ve had a rough year. At first, I let go completely — in every way. Too much drinking, too much smoking, too much going out, and not caring. I thought: my life sucks, and I’m going to die. I turned to vodka. I was smoking a pack a day. Boris was going through a bad time, in his way, so he didn’t notice. We disconnected and went our own ways,” she said.
The stress, the breaking up, and the alcohol eventually took a toll on Lilly. She decided she needed to get herself together. The actress revealed they had tried to save their marriage by going to couple’s therapy to get “the input from someone on the outside who doesn’t know you and isn’t biased.” While she thought it helped them a little, it wasn’t enough to save their marriage from breaking up. Yet, although the couple has separated, they aren’t legally divorced yet.
Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Kerssenberg is Now an Author
Lilly Becker lives in Wimbledon with her son, Amadeus. While caring for her son, she has been working on a podcast series and has written a book titled ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ which chronicles the events in her life in the aftermath of the spotlight that has chased her for a good part of her life. Before she met Becker, Lilly was married to an American lawyer named Michael Bermann from 2003 to 2008. Sometime after her separation from Becker, she revealed she was ready to find love again. “I am emotionally ready, so it’s just trying to find the right one. Don’t we all long for that fairytale ending? I would love to be in love,” she said. She is currently dating Thorsten Weck, the owner of a sports management company.
While some time has passed since their separation, Lilly’s relationship with Becker seems to go through ups and downs of its own. In 2018, she revealed she still loved Becker, and “estranged wife as that may be,” she was still married to him. “It was, from the beginning, intense and a complete, true love story. Everyone who knows us knows this. It’s not that I don’t want to get a divorce. We should handle our business at the right time,” she said.
Lilly also “completely broke down” when she discovered that Becker was sentenced to prison over insolvency charges related to his bankruptcy. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had to keep it together, and I don’t know how I did it,” she said. She has called Becker “a fantastic father, a funny and honest guy” with great charisma, but she has also called him “a devil.”
In March 2023, Lilly claimed that Becker hadn’t paid any maintenance or school fees for their son in the past ten months while he took a dig at her on Mother’s Day. “Boris seems to think he is more intelligent than everyone around him. So I look forward to him soon fulfilling his obligations to his son,” she stated. She added that he had tarnished his reputation by going to prison and that he “can be charming and loving when he wants to, but also extremely hurtful with words.” While this shows that there are still some unaddressed issues between them, Lilly has moved on with her life and is busy exploring the new chapter.
Read More: Angela Ermakova: Where is Boris Becker’s Ex-Mistress Now?
