Serena Williams has opened about her pregnancy and her enviable relationship with tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian for the August issue of Vanity Fair.
In the cover story, shot by renowned photographer, Annie Leibovitz, the undisputed queen of tennis reveals her joyous pregnancy was, in fact, very much unplanned.
“[I] did a double take and my heart dropped. Like literally dropped,” Serena, 35, told Buzz Bissinger.
She thought: “Oh my God, this can’t be – I’ve got to play a tournament. How am I going to play the Australian Open? I had planned on winning in Wimbledon this year.”
The athlete went on to recall the moment she handed her fiancé a paper bag containing half-a-dozen positive pregnancy tests, before explaining the entire experience still doesn’t seem “real.”
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“It just doesn’t seem real. I don’t know why. Am I having a baby?” she said. “If you would have told me last year in October or November that I would have a baby, not be pregnant but have a baby, I would have thought you were the biggest liar in the world.”
She added: “This is kind of how I am right now. This is happening sooner than later, and it’s going by so fast.”
In the interview, Serena also shines a light on her very much fatalistic relationship.
The two met by chance in Rome, when Alexis sat a little too close to the tennis great and her friends in the pool area of the Cavalieri hotel.
“This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?’” she recalled.
In attempt to get the tech giant to move to another table, her crew concocted a white lie, saying a rat was near to his table.
“I’m from Brooklyn,” Alexis replied. “I see rats all the time.”
Shortly after their first interaction, the duo went on their first date: a six-hour walk through the streets of Paris.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The 35-year-old is expecting her first child with fiancé Alexis Ohanian.
In April, Serena broke news of her pregnancy by accidentally uploading a photo of herself (and her burgeoning baby bump) to Snapchat with the caption “20 weeks.”
Her representatives were forced to confirm the exciting news just hours after the tennis star posted (and quickly deleted) an image of her growing baby bump.
The pregnancy announcement was met with utter joy and no small amount of amazement as quick-thinking fans worked out that the 23-time Grand Slam winner was approximately eight weeks pregnant during the Australian Open—which she won—in January.
But the tennis star, who discovered she was expecting just two days before the tournament, recently told Gayle King it wasn’t an “easy” experience.
“You hear all these stories about people when they’re pregnant: They get sick, they get really tired, really stressed out,” she said at the 2017 Ted Talks conference.. I had to really take all that energy and put it in a paper bag, so to say, and throw it away. Pregnant or not, no one knew and I was supposed to win that tournament. Every time I play, I’m expected to win. If I don’t win, it’s actually much bigger news.”
Reports suggest the couple are expecting a baby girl. However, the duo continue to deny the chatter.
