We paid the price of fame, says Becker

Boris Becker has blamed the pressure of being rich and famous for his separation from his wife Barbara after seven years of marriage.

"On one hand my wife lived by my side like a queen," the three times Wimbledon champion told Bild newspaper.

"That was fascinating for her, but on the other hand that feeling could be oppressive, suffocating and even overwhelming.

"My face is famous all over the world, and hers became that too. To live with that and cope with it is very hard.

"That's why I have no reproach to make to Barbara. I can only show her respect for having managed it so well for such a long time."

The couple's separation was still front page news in many German dailies on Thursday, two days after it was announced.

The media are focusing their attention on a 26-year-old hiphop artist, Sabrina Setlur, the daughter of an Indian banker and nurse, as the possible reason for the Beckers' split.

But Becker insisted there were no third parties involved.

"If another man or another woman were the reason for this separation then our relationship would have been of little value, if not in vain," he said.

"But to expect that my wife will enter a monastery and I will become a monk would be going too far."

The Beckers married in December 1993 and were regarded by many as Germany's dream couple. Barbara Becker, who is black, had become one of the country's most admired women.

The 33-year-old Becker, who has embarked on a successful career in sports marketing since retiring from competitive tennis, said the couple's two boys would live with their mother and repeated there is no question of a divorce.

"When you have two children, it's not that easy," he said.

"A separation from a person you love so much is no cloak and dagger operation ...It is a long, painful process. In our case it become more and more clear and evident. In the end we had to come to a split."

Becker said he would continue to live in Munich but he did not know where his wife and children would live.

All four would spend Christmas together, he added.

Becker and wife Barbara split