Serena Williams — who is often dubbed The Queen of the Court — has revealed she didn’t want 4-year-old Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.’s coach to know they are training the Grand Slam champion’s offspring.
Appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on April 2, she said of her little girl’s skills on the court: “Her ambition is playing princess games.”
DeGeneres quipped: “You enrolled her in tennis classes with a coach but you did not tell the coach that you were the mother?”
And Williams replied: “I don’t have the patience to teach tennis. It drives me nuts.”
Meanwhile, Williams recently admitted she didn’t feel any connection with her daughter during her pregnancy. She didn’t form a bond with her baby girl until the day she was born.
In a personal essay for Elle, she explained: “I was nervous about meeting my baby. Throughout my pregnancy, I’d never felt a connection with her. While I loved being pregnant, I didn’t have that amazing ‘Oh my God, this is my baby’ moment, ever. It’s something people don’t usually talk about, because we’re supposed to be in love from the first second.
“Yes, I was a lioness who would protect her baby at any cost, but I wasn’t gushing over her. I kept waiting to feel like I knew her during pregnancy, but the feeling never came. Some of my mom friends told me they didn’t feel the connection in the womb either, which made me feel better, but still, I longed for it.”
However, the Olympic gold medalist — who is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian — added: “When I finally saw her — and I just knew it was going to be a girl, that was one thing I knew about her before we even had it confirmed — I loved her right away. It wasn’t exactly instantaneous, but it was there, and from that seed, it grew.”
