Serena Williams Thanked Her Husband, Alexis Ohanian, For Publicly Defending Her After Her Viral Super Bowl Appearance Garnered Ridiculous Criticism
May this love find me, amen.
Serena Williams took to social media to thank her husband, Alexis Ohanian, for his unconditional support following her Super Bowl appearance, and I’m totally not jealous of their relationship. At all.
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In case you need a quick recap, Serena made headlines after her iconic appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show, when she joined Kendrick Lamar during his performance of his Grammy-winning hit “Not Like Us.” The show featured Serena Crip Walking to the track — and viewers had a lot to say about it.
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Given that “Not Like Us” is Kendrick’s diss track against Drake, viewers were quick to make the connection between Serena (Drake’s rumored ex, circa 2015) and Kendrick’s feud. But the Crip Walk also reminded audiences of when Serena faced scrutiny for doing the same dance at Wimbledon in 2012. Serena performed the move in celebration after beating fellow tennis great Maria Sharapova. However, this led to her being accused of “glamorizing gang culture,” prompting a heap of unfair scrutiny.
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But in spite of Serena’s historical connection to the dance move, most people fixated on her past romance with Drake and suggested that she was trolling the rapper by joining Kendrick on stage.
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Media personality Stephen A. Smith even went as far as suggesting that he’d divorce Serena over the move if he were her husband. “If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass, ’cause clearly you don’t belong with me,” he declared on ESPN. “What you worried about him for and you’re with me? Bye. Bye.”
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And while the comments sparked a whole lot of discourse, the loudest voice was none other than Serena’s actual husband, Alexis, who took to social media to defend his wife.
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Alexis and Serena have been married for eight years and have two daughters: Olympia and Adira.
Responding to an article about the divorce comment, Alexis publicly mentioned Stephen, telling him, “I got you @stephenasmith,” and linking out to his previous tweet that read, “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows… This is bigger than the music.”
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Alongside his callout of Stephen, Alexis proved that he’s ready to go to war for Serena when last week he issued a lethal response to Fox Sports journalist Jason Whitlock calling him a “simp” on X.
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I get it—you’re 57, and life didn’t turn out the way you imagined. That kind of disappointment must be exhausting. You’re the embodiment of peaked in high school, spending decades chasing validation from strangers through Likes and Digital Hugs, only to find that no amount of…
— Alexis Ohanian
(@alexisohanian) February 11, 2025
The read was generational. One user wrote, “Alexis I thought I was aware of your game but my goodness.” And others were quick to point out that Alexis, who is the cofounder of Reddit, was simply unbeatable when it came to the internet.
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“That there my baby daddy and husband. Always got my back. I Love you 
Gosh I’m so late to the game (I’ve been sick) & busy investing in billion dollar companies and running @WYNbeauty … def not dancing to be petty lol,” Serena wrote.
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In case you didn’t know, WYN Beauty is the beauty brand that Serena founded in 2024.
“I think I proved 23 times over (not counting 4 gold medals) that I simply don’t have time for petty,” she continued. “All love and respect always nothing negative here 
.”
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And with that, I think it’s clear that Serena will stay unbothered with her many accolades and wonderful husband, and keep dancing.
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