Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, dazzled in a magnificent black and white outfit adorned with countless pearls.
Williams’ performance at the MET Ball, however, may have been most impressive for the tiny secret she shared. During an interview with Vogue correspondent La La Anthony, Williams and Ohanian made their second pregnancy public!
Their oldest kid, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., will be joined by the second child.
Williams has already been transparent about her first labor experience. Olympia Williams was born in 2022, and after her delivery Williams revealed the frightening moment when she saved her own life.
In a piece for Elle that she adapted from the anthology Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, edited by Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns, Williams talked about how speaking up for herself after giving birth saved her life.
Williams went on to say that prior to the Olympics, she largely used her body for tennis and that ever after having a child, “the stakes of the game have shifted for me.”
“Tennis has occupied my body for such a long time. I know my body since I’ve experienced every kind of hurt possible,” she writes. “Two days before the 2017 Australian Open, my body had already switched allegiances when I found out I was pregnant.”
Its aim was to nurture and raise this infant that had allegedly appeared haphazardly, as far as it was concerned. The stakes in the game have changed for me ever since I had my child. I am the only active player with 23 Grand Slams to my name. But now, having success is a pleasure rather than a need.
I still aspire to titles, success, and esteem, but having a wonderful daughter at home does not inspire me to get out of bed in the morning. Beyond just winning, there is more to teach her about this game, she continues.
“I’ve learned to pick myself up after a loss, to defend what is important at all costs, and to speak out for what is right – even if it makes me unpopular. Having a child proved to be a test of how often and how loudly I would need to yell before someone would listen to me.
She also mentioned how she didn’t have a connection to Olympia until she had her child. “I couldn’t wait to see my child. I had never felt a connection with her during my pregnancy.
“My pregnancy wasn’t that fantastic, but I did enjoy it. My God, this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. We’re supposed to fall in love right away, so people try to avoid talking about it. I wasn’t swooning for her despite the fact that I was a furious lioness who would stop at nothing to protect her cub. Throughout my pregnancy, I waited to feel like I knew her, but the feeling never materialized. When several of my mom’s friends revealed that they experienced the same connection while in the womb, it made me feel better, but I continued to wish for it.
In her article, Williams, who has previously spoken about her traumatic birth experience, recalls the cramped birthing room, from the “meetings going on without me” to her desperate need for “calm, affirmative direction.” Williams’ doctor ultimately recommended that she have a C-section, and the athlete claimed that this made her feel “relieved to let go.”
Being an athlete requires knowing when to give up as well as how to control and utilize your body’s force. I felt happy and relieved to let go as the energy in the room dramatically changed, she remarked. We came out of this challenging, seemingly endless process with a clear plan for bringing this baby into the world.
Williams’ postpartum experience enabled her to regain control of the situation. “Black women in the United States are about three times more likely than white women to pass away during or right after giving birth. Specialists believe that many of these deaths could have been avoided,” she says.
“I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment paid attention to every Black woman’s experience,” she said. “Getting heard and receiving the right care meant the difference between life and death.”
Williams continued by describing how none of the nurses in her immediate vicinity were “really listening to what I was saying” before she could speak with her doctor and request a CAT scan of her lungs following numerous procedures.
“I fought valiantly until I received the CAT scan. “I’m grateful to her,” she writes. My blood clot was found to be in my lungs, and the doctors had to insert a filter into my veins to destroy it before it got to my heart.
