With 133.5 million viewers, Kendrick Lamar’s efficiency at Superbowl LIX was the most-watched Halftime Present in historical past, however “Not Like Us,” his provocative diss observe in opposition to Drake, wasn’t the perfect a part of the present — that honor went to a shock look by tennis legend Serena Williams.
Calling it “the perfect 10 seconds of my life,” Williams defined on Instagram that Lamar, who can be a Compton, California native, had seen her crip stroll dance on the 2012 Olympics and invited her to carry out with him in New Orleans. “I’m like Tremendous Bowl? Are you severe?… I knew my successful dance after the @olympics would repay in the future. Finish of story.”
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Others, like ESPN commentator Steven A. Smith, speculated that she was nonetheless serious about Drake, whom she dated on and off from 2011 and 2015, even going to this point to counsel that if he was Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, he’d go away her, rhetorically asking, “What you fearful about him for and also you’re with me?”
Seems Ohanian, who has been married to the legendary athlete since 2017, is enthusiastically Group Serena, even taking to X to voice his help:
Fairly incredible halftime present.
— Alexis Ohanian 🗽 (@alexisohanian) February 10, 2025
Simply one other day within the lifetime of the G.O.A.T.
Who’s Serena Williams?
Broadly thought to be the perfect feminine tennis participant in historical past in addition to the all-time highest-earning feminine athlete, Williams revolutionized the sport together with her highly effective athleticism and, within the course of, opened the doorways to athletes of coloration. She has 23 Grand Slam singles titles to her identify, 14 Grand Slam doubles together with her sister, Venus Williams, and 4 Olympic gold medals.
As well as, Williams is an ace at enterprise together with her personal enterprise capital agency, Serena Ventures, a multimedia firm, 9 Two Six Productions, and a healthcare model, Will Carry out. Collectively, they’ve expanded her wealth by over 50% since 2019, in response to Forbes.
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A mode star and cultural icon, Williams has made appearances on every thing from Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” video to E!’s “Maintaining with the Kardashians” to the 2023 smash movie “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Film.” She owns a worldwide actual property portfolio and has launched her personal clothes and tennis traces — Nike even named a constructing in honor.
It’s a marvel how she will be able to preserve observe of every thing and lift her two daughters, Alexis Olympia and Adira River, within the course of — but when anybody can do it, the “Queen of the Courtroom” can.
What’s Serena Williams’ internet price in 2025?
In accordance with Forbes, as of February 2025, Williams’ internet price stands at a powerful $340 million, incomes her the #97 spot on the publication’s 2024 listing of “America’s Self-Made Ladies.”
The factor is, Williams retired from tennis in 2022, pocketing a complete of $95 million in prize cash. Which means she’s made practically thrice as a lot, or $245 million, off the court docket.
They usually say tennis is a recreation of technique …
Karwai Tang/WireImage
Williams’ internet price with Alexis Ohanian
It’s in all probability not truthful to name Williams the breadwinner within the Ohanian household, however let’s face it — she trounces her husband in relation to wealth.
The final time Forbes profiled Ohanian’s internet price was in 2019, valuing him at $70 million. He co-created Reddit along with his school roommate, Steve Huffman, promoting Reddit to Condé Nast in 2005 and pocketing simply $10 million within the course of.
Each would later return to the corporate in main roles: Ohanian served as government chairman from 2014 to 2020.
As well as, he was a associate on the famed enterprise capital incubator Y Combinator (a part of the agency’s “first batch” in 2005, together with OpenAI’s Sam Altman); he helped launch the journey web site Hipmunk in 2010, and in 2021, he created his personal VC agency, Seven Seven Six, which invests in early-stage corporations with an emphasis on fairness.
This consists of girls’s sports activities and ventures by Colin Kaepernick, the NFL participant made well-known for protesting in opposition to racial inequality and police brutality by taking a knee in the course of the Nationwide Anthem.
Williams and Ohanian’s mixed internet price is $410 million.
Clive Brunskill/Allsport
Serena Williams’ formative years
Nobody ever thought two black women with beads and braids from Compton would shatter stereotypes in tennis, however identical to Tiger Woods did with golf, the Williams sisters opened doorways to what had been a predominantly white sport — and have become very wealthy within the course of.
Venus Williams, who herself has a internet price of $95 million, was born on June 17, 1980; Serena was born on September 26, 1981. The close-knit sisters have mentioned they have been a “large affect on one another,” with Serena calling her large sister “my rock.”
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Their father, Richard Williams, was a former sharecropper from Louisiana. He and Oracene Worth, his spouse, taught themselves the right way to play tennis by studying books and watching movies. When Serena was three years outdated, the younger household moved from Saginaw, Michigan to Compton, California — Richard was impressed by the instance of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X and believed that the powerful neighborhood would make his kids sturdy.
Serena and Venus started to play on run-down courts with Richard as their coach — the sisters have been even homeschooled in order to maximise their observe time.
When Serena was 9, the household relocated once more, to West Palm Seaside, Florida, in order that she and her sister might attend Rick Macci’s famed tennis academy. Macci is credited for teaching different high expertise like Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, and Jennifer Capriati.
Williams’ skilled debut got here in 1995, on the age of 14, at a qualifying occasion in Quebec Metropolis, the place she was soundly defeated by Annie Miller. Simply two years later, Williams can be the 99th-ranked participant on the planet.
Overcoming discrimination
However her journey was by no means straightforward. Due to her sturdy stature and highly effective physique, folks made enjoyable of Serena’s look, ridiculing her breast measurement and evaluating the Williams sisters’ tennis recreation to “watching monkeys on the zoo.” One commentator mentioned that if the Williams sisters posed bare, it will be for a publication like Nationwide Geographic and never Playboy.
Venus turned skilled in 1994; by 2000, she had received her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon.
Set to play within the Indian Wells Tennis Event in 2001, Venus withdrew on the final minute, citing tendinitis. Followers erupted in jeers, accusing Richard of match-fixing and spewing racial slurs on the household, together with the N-word. Though Serena received her match in opposition to Kim Clijsters, she mentioned the incident haunted her for years to return.
@Knightcartoons cartoon isn’t racist or sexist …. it rightly mocks poor habits by a tennis legend … Mark has the complete help of everybody @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/KWMT3QahJh
— Damon Johnston (@damonTheOz) September 11, 2018
Serena boycotted that event till 2015, however the derogatory caricatures and on-line hate continued all through her profession. Nonetheless, Serena vowed to rise above all of it, placing it greatest in 2006, when she advised reporters, “I do not dwell on different folks. I do know what I’ve to do. You must be pleased with what you are doing.”
Her profession achievements show that in spades.
Serena Williams’ profession highlights
On July 8, 2002, Williams grew to become the top-ranked participant on the planet, and her reign would final for a complete of 316 weeks all through her profession.
Her First Grand Slam collection got here in 2002, when she received French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open — and when she received a collection once more in 2015 (Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon), she impressed a brand new title, “Serena Slam” within the course of.
Williams additionally received the “Floor Slam” in 2015, which included victories on all three court docket surfaces: arduous, clay, and grass, in the identical 12 months.
She claimed victory at Wimbledon seven instances, in 2002, 2003, 2009–2010, 2012, 2015, and 2016.
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She championed the Australian Open seven instances, in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009–2010, 2015, and 2017. Her last win there was particularly vital, as she was eight weeks pregnant on the time.
Serena and Venus Williams performed one another 31 instances of their skilled profession; Serena received 19 matches, whereas Venus received 12.
Williams’ last match was on the 2022 US Open, the place she misplaced to Ajla Tomljanovic in a third-round match. On the finish of the match, she held her hand over her coronary heart and mouthed “I really like you” to a thunderous ovation from the group.
She did it her means, ceaselessly a champion.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Pictures
Serena Williams’ endorsements
Together with titles got here sponsorships. In accordance with Forbes, Williams has retained endorsement offers with over a dozen manufacturers — though she’s retired. These embrace Beats by Dre, Gatorade, Nike, Piguet watches, and Puma.
Her 2003 contract with Nike was price $55 million alone.
She additionally has an eponymous jewellery line and an athleisure clothes model, S by Serena.
Chesnot/Getty Pictures
Serena Williams’ enterprise ventures
Greatest mates in actual life, Serena and Venus have invested in a number of companies collectively, together with the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Golf Membership, which is a part of the TGL golf league created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Extra sports activities venturists:
- Rory McIlroy’s internet price: How a lot the PGA star & Nike spokesperson makes on the hyperlinks
- Jerry Jones’ internet price: How the Cowboys proprietor made his cash
- Tom Brady’s internet price: Minting hundreds of thousands in his NFL retirement
Serena mentioned that her mission after tennis is investing in girls, folks of coloration and variety typically. Serena Ventures was launched in 2015; as of 2024, fourteen of the businesses in her portfolio have been valued at greater than $1 billion.
A couple of embrace the Calico eCommerce platform, Esusu fintech firm, and Parfait, which makes use of AI and superior facial recognition to offer personalized wigs to consumers on-line.
Together with Venus, Williams government produced the 2021 Oscar-nominated movie “King Richard,” which centered on their father’s story.
Williams additionally wrote a kids’s ebook, “The Adventures of Qai Qai” that grew to become the No. 1 promoting new launch on Amazon in 2022.
Taylor Hill/Getty Pictures
Serena Williams’ private life
Williams has largely stored her private life personal, though, along with Drake, she can be rumored to have dated rapper Widespread, “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner, and NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire. She additionally reportedly dated her tennis coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, though neither confirmed the romance.
In 2015, Williams met Ohanian on the Cavalieri Resort in Rome — Williams was taking part in within the Italian Open, and Ohanian was talking at a convention on behalf of Reddit.
In accordance with Self-importance Truthful, the story goes that Ohanian, who was barely hungover from a celebration the evening earlier than, sat down subsequent to her and her mates by the pool. His solely said curiosity was in meals and occasional, however as he placed on his headphones to start out engaged on his laptop computer, Serena and her mates grew to become irritated and requested him to maneuver. Nonetheless, Ohanian’s buddy, Zane Haupt, had simply arrived and observed a rat by the opposite desk, making it not possible for him to maneuver.
So, Serena invited them to stick with them poolside, and later, to observe her play tennis. She didn’t carry out that nicely, however she was captivated, inviting him to hitch her at her subsequent match in Paris. He accepted — and the remaining was historical past.
Returning to the resort the place that they had first met, Ohanian proposed to Williams on December 10, 2016; on September 1, 2017, the couple’s first baby, daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian (whom they name Olympia), was born.
Williams and Ohanian have been married on November 16, 2017, at a lavish ceremony on the Up to date Arts Heart in New Orleans. Friends included Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, and Anna Wintour.
Their second daughter, Adira River Ohanian, was born in August 2023.
Serena Williams’ actual property portfolio
Williams and her Venus, who additionally has her personal inside design enterprise, V Starr, collaborated on her primary residence, a 14,500-square-foot Mediterranean dream house in Miami.
In accordance with Architectural Digest, the house, which Williams bought in 2017 for an undisclosed sum, options an infinity pool, health club, sauna, wine cellar, and karaoke room, and the sisters spent three years upgrading it.
Additionally in 2017, Williams bought one other Mediterranean house — this one in Beverly Hills, Calif. for $6.7 million. The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom house has a customized chef’s kitchen with polished marble island, a therapeutic massage room, and a yoga room.
Throughout the pond, Williams purchased a modern Parisian pied-à-terre in 2007, ostensibly to be near the French Open. Particulars are obscure as to the house’s buy value in addition to whether or not or not she nonetheless owns it.
And in 2020, Williams purchased one other Floridian property: A ten,433 square-foot riverfront property in Jupiter, not removed from the place she grew up — however worlds away, as they are saying.
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