Serena Williams has announced her family will have a new addition!
The tennis superstar announced she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, are expecting their second child, ESPN reported.
Williams, 41, shared the exciting news in an Instagram post on Monday as the couple were headed to this year’s Met Gala. The post featured a photo of the 23-time Grand Slam champion smiling alongside Ohanian as well as solo snapshots of Williams cradling her baby bump.
“Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the 3 of us to the Met Gala,” Williams wrote in the caption, adding a list of fashion details in the post.
View this post on Instagram
The pair share a 5-year-old daughter, Olympia, who Williams gave birth to in September 2017, per ESPN. Two months later, they tied the knot during an intimate ceremony in New Orleans.
Blavity reported Williams penned a first-person essay in Vogue in August 2022, announcing her retirement from tennis.
The Compton native said she was ready to part ways with the sport and expand her family with her husband.
“In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family,” Williams wrote in the essay. “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”
While Williams adores being a mom to young Olympia, she admitted she “never thought about having kids” earlier in her career.
“There were times when I’ve wondered if I should ever bring kids into this world, with all its problems. I was never that confident or comfortable around babies or children, and I figured that if I ever did have a baby, I would have people taking care of it 24/7,” she explained.
In February, Williams opened up about her near-death experience after childbirth in an exclusive interview with CBS News’ Person to Person with Norah O’Donnell.
Williams had a pulmonary embolism after her daughter was born. She said she had a medical history with PE and knew what to do after experiencing symptoms, per Blavity.
“This sparked a slew of health complications that I am lucky to have survived,” she wrote. “First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism. I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs. When I finally made it home to my family, I had to spend the first six weeks of motherhood in bed.”
Williams also raised awareness about maternal health care disparities Black women experience during and after childbirth.
“You know everyone has a birth story. People started to talk about how, unfortunately, Black moms don’t receive the same care,” she told O’Donnell.
This year’s Met Gala theme is “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” a nod to the late German designer who died in February 2019 at age 85, per Entertainment Tonight.
Williams is reportedly close friends with Anna Wintour, who serves as the editor-in-chief of Vogue and a co-chair of the Met Gala.
