Serena Williams says marriage to husband ‘is not bliss’ without the work
'I always knew I wanted kids. I never knew when but I always knew I wanted kids at some point.'
After nearly four years of marriage to entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams admits that married life “is not bliss.”
“But it can be if you work at it,” she says in a recent discussion about being a wife and mother in Bumble’s The Question Game, PEOPLE reports. The tennis champ also notes that “a dealbreaker for me in a relationship is definitely loyalty. Well, not having it, that is.”
Williams, 38, and the Reddit co-founder, 37, tied the knot in November 2017 in New Orleans. They share a 3-year-old daughter Alexis Olympia Jr., 3. Earlier this month, Williams and Alexis celebrated Megan Thee Stallion winning big at the Grammys, theGRIO reported.
Read More: Serena Williams, daughter Olympia celebrate Megan Thee Stallion’s Grammy wins with cute dance
Williams, dressed in an elegant tulle gown and Olympia, similarly dressed in an adorable pink princess dress, threw a TikTok dance party in honor of the rapper’s wins at the 2021 Grammy Awards. The TikTok showed them doing a shimmy with Megan’s hit song, “Body,” playing in the background.
The video was later reposted to the athlete’s Instagram feed, along with the caption, “How we feel about these Grammy wins! Congratulations!”
Williams tells Bumble that she always knew she wanted to be a mother.
“I always knew I wanted kids. I never knew when but I always knew I wanted kids at some point,” she said.
Speaking about her bond with her child to PEOPLE last summer, Williams dished about her toddler’s eye for style, revealing that the little girl “dresses me and her father” every day.
“She’ll set up before bed what we need to wear in the morning,” says the tennis star. “And she says, ‘Blue shirt, blue shirt, blue shirt.’ And then she goes, ‘Mama wear this or these shoes.’ She always tells me to [wear] heels. She’s currently wearing heels.”
Williams said her daughter enjoys coordinating to the point that they’re oftentimes “twining.”
“We even have jammies. So now if she sees me in something, and she has the same thing, she immediately wants to change so we’re twins,” says the mother of one.
Read More: Alexis Ohanian calls former tennis champ a ‘racist/sexist clown’ after Serena Williams comments
Meanwhile, Alexis Ohanian has made clear that he will not tolerate any racism hurled his wife’s way. In January he clapped back at Madrid Open owner Ion Tiriac after he made some sideways comments about the icon, theGRIO reported.
“Serena was a sensational player,” Tiriac told Romanian public channel TVR in a recent interview. “If she had a little decency, she would retire. At this age and the weight she is now, she does not move as easily as she did 15 years ago.”
Ohanian slammed the former tennis player on social media in response to the comments.
“2021 and no holding back when a racist/sexist clown with a platform comes for my family,” he posted on Twitter. “Safe to say no one gives a damn what Ion Tiriac thinks.”
*theGRIO’s Blue Telusma and Cortney Wills contributed to this report.
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