Dressed in a stunning black and white ensemble garnished with hundreds of pearls, Williams wowed alongside her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
But perhaps the most stunning part of Williams’ appearance at the MET Ball was the little secret she revealed. Williams and Ohanian revealed their second pregnancy during an interview with Vogue correspondent La La Anthony!
The second baby will join Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., their oldest child.
Williams has been open about her first labor experience in the past. After the birth of her daughter Olympia in 2022, Williams shared the terrifying moment when she saved her own life.
Wiliams discussed how standing up for herself after giving birth saved her life in a personal essay that she adapted from Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, an anthology compiled by Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns and shared with Elle.
Williams continued by explaining how, before the Olympics, her body was mostly used for tennis and how, since becoming a baby, “the stakes of the game have shifted for me.”
“My body has belonged to tennis for so long. I’ve suffered every injury imaginable, and I know my body,” she writes. “My body had already shifted allegiances when I found out I was pregnant two days before the 2017 Australian Open.”
“As far as it was concerned, its goal was to develop and raise this baby that had ostensibly materialized haphazardly… Since I’ve had my baby, the game’s stakes have shifted for me. I have 23 Grand Slams to my name, more than any other active player. But winning is now a desire and no longer a need.”
“I have a lovely daughter at home; I still aspire to titles, success, and esteem, but it does not motivate me to get out of bed in the morning. There is more to teach her about this game than winning,” she adds.
“I’ve learned to dust myself off after defeat, to stand up for what matters at any cost, to call out for what’s fair — even when it makes me unpopular. It turned out that having my child tested how often and loudly I would have to yell before someone would finally hear me.
She also touched on how it wasn’t until after she met her baby that she felt a connection to Olympia. “I was anxious to meet my child. Throughout my pregnancy, I’d never felt a connection with her.”
“While I enjoyed my pregnancy, it wasn’t that amazing. Oh my God, this is my baby moment ever. People avoid discussing it because we’re expected to fall in love immediately. I was a fierce lioness who would do anything to protect her cub, but I wasn’t swooning for her. I waited to feel like I knew her during pregnancy, but the emotion never arrived. I felt better when some of my mom’s friends admitted that they had the same experience about the connection while in the womb, but I still yearned for it.
Williams, who has previously spoken about her horrific birth experience, describes the crowded birthing room in her article, from the “meetings going on without me” to her intense need for “calm, affirmative direction.” When Williams decides to have a C-section, her doctor ultimately advised her to do so, and the athlete said this made her feel “relieved to let go.”
“Controlling and using your body’s power are important aspects of being an athlete, but you also need to know when to give up. The energy in the room completely altered, and I felt thrilled and relieved to let go,” she remarked. “From this difficult, seemingly never-ending process, we emerged with a clear strategy for bringing this baby into the world.”
Williams’ post-birth experience helped her restore her autonomy in the circumstance. “Black women in the United States have an almost threefold higher risk of dying during or after childbirth than white women. Many of these deaths are deemed by specialists to be preventable,” she shares.
“Getting heard and receiving the right care meant the difference between life and death; I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment paid attention to every Black woman’s experience.”
Williams went on to tell how none of the nurses surrounding her were “really listening to what I was saying” until Williams could talk with her doctor and seek a CAT scan of her lungs after many procedures.
“I battled bravely, and I eventually had the CAT scan. She writes, “I’m grateful to her. The doctors discovered that I had a blood clot in my lungs and had to put a filter into my veins to dissolve it before it reached my heart.
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