Jan Ullrich: He raves about his patchwork family

The cycling icon Jan Ullrich (51) fought back to life after alcohol and drug problems and its doping confession. He also owes his new courage to live his loved one, he tells the program “Gala” (April 4, 5:45 p.m., RTL).

He talks to moderator Annika Lau (46) “about heights, depths and new ways”. His love luck and his patchwork family also play an important role here.

Like the broadcaster, Jan Ullrich looks back at Mallorca with his partner Elizabeth Napoles with his partner Elizabeth Napoles. At that time he was in a “difficult phase”. “I had already separated from my wife, she was already moving to Germany with the children. That it made it so quickly, click ‘again, that was a miracle and I am glad that we still love and kept this love in this difficult time six or seven years ago”.

In addition, his partner grown well into his patchwork family. Ullrich has four children of two women. He raves about Annika Lau: “I have a great relationship with my children, calls the boys every day.”

This is probably not a matter of course in the face of Ullrich’s escapades. “Of course we always spoke to the children in a child -friendly manner,” he says. Has helped that his relationship with his former partners was also friendly and respectful. They were always honest with the children. “And that was certainly not easy for the children at all. And that’s why it is up to me to make more of me and now give everything.”

Jan Ullrich had literally lived in the fast lane for many years and had a success after the other in cycling. In 2006 suddenly everything was over after he was involved in a doping scandal. In 2012, the International Sports Court of CAS spoke him guilty in the last instance of the doping. Ullrich had rejected a confession by November 2023. “At the time, criminal proceedings were still going on. My lawyers recommended me to remain silent. A advice that I followed, but I suffered from the consequences for a long time,” he said in an unveiling interview with the “Stern”.

After the end of the career, he got alcohol and drug problems. He consumed “whiskey like water” and cocaine in large quantities. After the separation from his wife Sara, the final collapse came: “The crash in 2018 almost cost me life, I lost a lot.” He was not “far from death” and on the best way to destroy himself.