Subtle Red Flags In Serena Williams' Marriage

Superstar tennis player Serena Williams married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2017, two years after the couple started dating after first meeting in Rome. The highly successful couple share two young daughters, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. (called Olympia) and Adira River Ohanian. While on the outside it looks like Williams and Ohanian have a fairytale marriage, there are subtle hints that things are not as picture-perfect as they may seem.

One potential red flag in Williams' marriage to Ohanian occurred when the famed tennis player appeared during the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. Kendrick Lamar, who has a long-standing feud with Drake, was the headliner and Williams made a cameo, showing off her dance moves, including the Crip Walk. Williams was allegedly romantically linked to Drake between 2011 and 2015, leading some to assume she appeared at Lamar's halftime show as a dig to the Canadian rapper. ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith criticized Williams' behavior at the halftime show as disrespectful to her husband, and stated that he believed Ohanian should end the marriage. "If I'm married, and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass," Smith said on ESPN's podcast "First Take" (via HuffPost).

Ohanian shared his two cents on the matter via X, focusing on Williams' Crip Walk dance performance. He wrote, "Some of y'all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows," perhaps implying that he believed the dance had little to do with Drake.

While Serena Williams' marriage to Alexis Ohanian appears to be blissful, the different ways the two deal with their wealth and raising children could be a red flag. Williams' net worth is reported to be $300 million, while Ohanian's sits at $150 million, making their overall net worth together a whopping $450 million. Ohanian has implied that he and his wife have different opinions about giving their young children money. 

In a post on X, Ohanian shared that he and Williams had worked out a contract for their daughter Olympia, in which she would do chores in exchange for an allowance. However, the businessman stated that Williams fought for their daughter not to have to work on weekends. "Yes, Olympia's got a contract. $7/week allowance — negotiated by her mom (who somehow got her weekends off)," Ohanian wrote. It could be inferred that Ohanian wanted Olympia to work weekends and didn't see eye to eye with his wife completely regarding the contract. 

Yet another instance that could be considered a sign of trouble in Williams' marriage was when the tennis champion made a vague post on Instagram in September 2025. In the post, Williams described going through a difficult period. "Dearest gentle reader, My summer started out well but I was plunged into a difficult August," she captioned a photo of herself. Williams went on to say she had "faced challenges that tested my spirit and resilience." This could be an indication that something was wrong in her marriage, but it also could have been in reference to something completely separate.