Perfect match?
June 12, 2009
Friday saw 200 celebrity guests descend on the up-market Alpine resort of St. Moritz amid tight security. Soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer, the boxing Klitschko brothers, swimmer Franziska van Almsick and Prince Albert von Monaco were among the star crowd.
In a few days time, German TV audiences will be able to feel as though they, too, were guests at the wedding of the year, courtesy of commercial network RTL. The happy couple sold the rights to their special day for an unspecified fee, a station spokeswoman told AFP news agency. Apparently, the camera crew was even granted temporary access to the couple's honeymoon suite.
Playing out in the full glare of the public eye, this latest milestone in Boris Becker's jet-set life is wholly in keeping with the media circus that now surrounds the one-time athlete.
Glory days
There was a time when Boris Becker was Germany's golden boy - but that was over 20 years ago, when he was the youngest champion in Wimbledon's history at the tender age of 17. Since retiring from professional tennis in 1999, public opinion hasn't always been kind to "Boom Boom" Becker, and he's become best-known for his turbulent love life and failed businesses.
Past years have seen Becker hit the headlines over tax evasion trials and a messy divorce from his first wife Barbara after he fathered a child with Russian model Angela Ermakova during a brief encounter in the broom closet of a London restaurant.
But he's weathered the ups and downs to establish himself as one of Germany's leading A-list celebrities. He now charges up to 60,000 euros ($85,000) as a promotional fee to attend events, and lends his name and face to a range of products from luxury brands to beer.
A new beginning?
But the man once hailed as a prodigious talent has become famous mainly for being famous. Over the years he's been linked to a bevy of beauties - and now the nation can't wait to see if his marriage to Lilly Kerssenberg marks the start of a more settled chapter in his life.
But anyone expecting a new, grown-up Becker will probably be disappointed. In terms of stability, the couple's courtship doesn't augur well: They first met in 2005, but the relationship was punctuated by at least two break-ups. In 2007 Boris famously ended the affair via text message a day before his 40th birthday, moving swiftly on to a liaison with Sandy Meyer-Woelden, a jewellery designer 15 years his junior and the daughter of his former manager.
After 83 days, the dream was over and he returned to Lilly.
In February this year, Boris proposed to the Dutch model on live national television, followed by 9.7 million Germans, when they appeared on the popular show "Wetten, dass….?" alongside Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson.
"Oh no, not again!" the program's host, Thomas Gottschalk, cried in response.
A "fascinating" life
The couple certainly aren't the retiring types. Lilly cites Rafael Nadal, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jade Goody as inspirations, and told German tabloid Bild ahead of the wedding that she'd be calming her nerves with a shot or two of vodka.
Becker, meanwhile, is now a professional poker player with his own Web site that shows podcasts of his day-to-day life.
"Most of my projects have flopped and I have often been out of luck with money and women," he said when the channel was launched last month. "But with Boris Becker TV, I am allowing everybody to take a peek into my life (…) and my life is a series of fascinating events."
Author: Jane Paulick
Editor: Kate Bowen