Serena Williams Fell for Husband Alexis Ohanian for This Super Sweet Reason
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Serena Williams couldn’t have found a better partner in husband Alexis Ohanian.
The 37-year-old opened up about her relationship with the Reddit co-founder in Allure's February cover story, sharing that when she first met the 35-year-old, her romantic life was the least of her concerns.
“It just hadn’t happened, and I really didn’t think about it much,” she told the magazine. “I was so committed to my job, and to being the best and working the hardest, and I think I still am.”
She added, “Not to knock anyone else I was with before, because they were all mostly amazing, but I know now I can be selfish, have a great career, and a great partner, someone that believes in me.”
Lucky for Williams, she was given some excellent relationship advice from Oprah (wouldn't it be nice to have Oprah on tap for advice?) that greatly impacted how she approached her love life.
“Oprah said, ‘Never let anyone dim your light.’ That really stuck with me,” she said.
She goes on to reveal why she fell for Ohanian, saying, “Alexis doesn’t dim my light. He doesn’t try to dim my light. He puts me in the light, even if I don’t want to be. He pushes me to further points I never thought about.”
She continued, “It always was something that I could see in some relationships – my light would be dimmer. Now I feel like I can shine really bright and still do everything that I want to do.”
The two first met in 2015 before getting engaged just a year later in December 2016. They welcomed daughter Olympia in September 2017, and tied the knot a couple months later in November at a star-studded ceremony in New Orleans.
Olympia's just one year old, but Serena has already made a point to start teaching her important lessons – some of which she learned from her own mother.
“I think my mom instilled in us to be confident women, to really believe in ourselves, be proud of our heritage, our hair, and our bodies. That was something that was really important for her to teach us,” she said. “I’m definitely teaching it to my daughter.”
A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Dec 19, 2018 at 4:01pm PST
Williams views these teachings as important given the similarities between herself and her daughter, particularly with their appearance.
She said, “I have a picture from when I was, like, two years old. My arms are ripped. If you look at my daughter, she has a very similar body type.”
The tennis star hopes that her daughter views beauty as being more than just skin deep, sharing that “I want to teach her that she’s beautiful from the inside ... Being kind and humble is the ultimate beauty.”
A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Nov 21, 2018 at 7:24am PST
But that’s not all the tennis star wants to teach her little girl.
“I want her to know that being strong is never easy. Not in this world we are living in… Standing up for yourself is not going to be easy, but it’s always eventually respected,” she said. “Those are the people who’ve made a difference in this world, people that stand up for what’s right. If you look at history, those are the people that you really remember. And at the time, oh, my God, it seemed impossible.”
