Tennis legend Serena Williams is opening up about the unexpected emotional challenges of motherhood in her new TIME100 Most Influential People profile. The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who shares daughters Olympia, 7, and Adira, 1, with husband Alexis Ohanian, revealed how watching her eldest daughter interact with her baby sister brings back memories of her own childhood dynamic with sister Venus Williams.
“When Olympia tells Adira no, I’m just like, ‘Excuse me, you have to share’ because it’s triggering,” Williams confessed. The tennis superstar, who grew up as the younger sister to Venus, admitted she sometimes has to check her instinct to automatically defend Adira during sibling squabbles.
The balancing act of parenting two children has presented other challenges for Williams, who retired from professional tennis in 2022 to focus on family. “I try to be less on baby, but she’s just so cute,” she said of 1-year-old Adira. “How do you not give her all the attention in the world? Oh my God. It’s so hard.”
Despite the difficulties, Williams has no regrets about her decision to leave tennis for motherhood. “I look at Adira and I’m like, ‘Was it worth it?’ I literally thought about it the other day. I was like, ‘Yeah, it was definitely worth it,'” she reflected.
Now leading Serena Ventures and even serving as “room mom” at Olympia’s school, Williams embraces her multifaceted identity with confidence. “I’m a wonderful mom,” she declared. “I think we, as women, don’t give ourselves credit, but I’m a great mom. I really am. I do everything.”
Her candid revelations highlight the universal parenting struggle of managing sibling relationships while confronting one’s own childhood memories – proving even champion athletes face these deeply human challenges.
