Serena Williams Didn’t Think She’d Marry a White Guy

Tennis phenom and new wife and mom Serena Williams opened up in an interview with The New York Times about the choice to let the public into her private life through her HBO documentary series, Being Serena. She also discussed her interracial marriage.

“I’m an athlete,” Williams, 36, said. “He’s a business guy. I’m black. He’s white. We are totally opposite. I think we just complement each other. I think we understand hard work in different ways.”

The superstar married Alexis Ohanian, now 35, in late 2017 after about two years of dating the Reddit co-founder. The two are very different but “are such a good fit.” Ohanian is White. Williams is a major figure in a predominately White sport in which the racism she faces is well-documented. The fact that she married a Caucasian is surprising to her but a lesson in the color-blindness of true love.

“Literally all I tell Alexis is, ‘Well, you know, there’s such a difference between white people and black people.’ He always gets to hear about the injustices that happen; that wouldn’t happen if I were white. It’s interesting. I never thought I would have married a white guy, either, so it just goes to show you that love truly has no color, and it just really goes to show me the importance of what love is. And my dad absolutely loves Alexis.”