Game, Set, Perfect Match: Inside Serena Williams Love Story With Alexis Ohanian
It’s no surprise that Alexis Ohanian simply aced his first date with tennis legend Serena Williams.
For the first half of the 2015 outing, the Reddit cofounder served up answer after answer as Williams, her assistant and agent Jill Smoller “just bombarded me with questions—it was like two hours of interrogation,” the 42-year-old recounted in Williams’ 2024 ESPN+ docuseries In The Arena. “‘Do I have kids? Am I married?’ Nothing was off limits.”
Then he swooped in with a tidbit that truly saved the day.
“He started talking about Iron Man and Marvel,” Williams detailed. “That’s the way to my heart.”
It’s just one of many trick plays the tech entrepreneur has employed in their decade together.
There was also the time he commissioned a series of billboards to be set up in Palm Springs, welcoming his wife back to competition following an incredibly arduous maternity leave in 2018. And his decision to sweep her off to Venice because she mentioned that some pasta might be nice.
And, of course, there was his display at the 2019 U.S. Open in which he trolled his wife’s opponent, Maria Sharapova, exposing his D.A.R.E. t-shirt, a nod to Sharapova’s two-year doping ban, only when it was clear that Williams had cruised to a victory.
Get yourself a man who can be petty on your behalf and deftly shut down trolls. (As in, no, her Crip Walk during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance was about so much more than her romance with Drake, sorry, Stephen A. Smith.)
Ohanian, of course, is taken, with he and Williams, 44, tying the knot in New Orleans on Nov. 16, 2017.
And the University of Virginia grad has spent the eight years since reminding everyone that he’s scored the greatest tennis player in the world and the GMOAT (that’d be the Greatest Momma of All Time) to their 8-year-old daughter, future tennis ace Alexis Olympia Ohanian (a.k.a. the star of the 2024 ESPYs) and 2-year-old Adira River Ohanian.
While she boasts a record-setting 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era, Ohanian entered their union with what he called “the cheat code for partnership,” cribbed from his parents’ own experiences.
And the multi-millionaire entrepreneur’s secrets had little to do with extravagant trips and public displays of infatuation.
“You have to show up,” he wrote in a Glamour essay, published, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day in 2019. “You have to be supportive. These are the things that matter.”
Having watched his parents—who fell in love over a two-week span in Ireland—commit as “partners in the truest sense,” the New York City native was ready when he crossed paths with Williams at the Cavalieri hotel in Rome.
Though it may have helped if he’d seen even one moment of tennis in his lifetime.
Williams was there on business, prepping to play in the Italian Open. And while Ohanian was allegedly in town to speak at the Festival of Media Global conference, he had spent the night before their chance meeting in May 2015 drinking with Kristen Wiig. So he was just a touch out of sorts when he claimed the table next to Williams, her agent and her pal, one they were hoping to use for other members of her team.
Williams and her cohorts were annoyed; Ohanian was oblivious, having put on his headphones, ready to get to work.
“This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?'” Williams recalled to Vanity Fair in August 2017. Her business partner came up with a gambit, trying to shoo him away with the suggestion that a rat was present, but the tennis champ was more straightforward.
“We were trying to get him to move and get out of there,” she said. “He kind of refuses and he looks at us. And he’s like, ‘Is there really a rat here?'” So she switched tactics: “‘No, we just don’t want you sitting there. We’re going to use that table.'”
Reader, a meet-cute this was not.
But something about Ohanian won Williams over, perhaps his proclamation that in his native Brooklyn, he saw rats all the time. Williams then invited him to join them, which is when Ohanian got his first inkling that she was actually that Serena Williams, unmistakable tennis legend.
But, as he admitted to Vanity Fair, he had “never watched a match on television or in real life. It was literally the sport—even if ESPN was announcing tennis updates, I would just zone out. . . . I really had no respect for tennis.”
Which, was okay, because when Ohanian said he was at the tech conference to speak, an in-demand personality thanks to the creation of Reddit, Williams claimed to totally be familiar with the networking site, having perused it just that morning.
Though they didn’t seem to be setting the stage for love, someone on Williams’ team invited Ohanian to watch her match.
She won, but not up to her standards. So, as she prepped to take the court at the French Open, something made her ask Ohanian along for a re-do.
“Even if she blows me off and we don’t even hang out, I’m still going to have an amazing time in Paris, and I’ll have an even better story for all my childhood friends,” he explained to Vanity Fair of accepting her invite, “when I was like, ‘Yeah, I went to Paris for a weekend. I was supposed to meet up with Serena Williams, she blew me off, but I’ve got other friends there, and we had a great time.'”
Which, he did. Because Williams certainly did not blow him off, the pair enjoying their first date post-match, spending six hours wandering the streets of Paris, buying candies from La Ménagerie in the Jardin des Plantes and walking past some of the most famous tourist sites in the world. Casual.
While few would think to pair a world-class athlete and a tech giant, the two simply work, Williams’ more passionate nature providing the perfect complement to Ohanian’s steady calm.
Both equally committed to being the best at what they do, they’ve schooled themselves on each other’s interests. Williams now sits on the board of Silicon Valley-based SurveyMonkey while Ohanian has transformed himself into tennis’ most ardent fan.
“He’s extremely smart but not a know-it-all. He’s curious about what he doesn’t know,” Williams told Vogue in 2017. “Being a Jehovah’s Witness is important to me, but I’ve never really practiced it and have been wanting to get into it. Alexis didn’t grow up going to any church, but he’s really receptive and even takes the lead. He puts my needs first.”
His thoughtfulness was very much on display with his December 2016 proposal at the same spot in Rome where they first met, a plastic rat on the table. But he raised the bar even further after Olympia’s arrival the following September.
“My understanding of showing up and being present for my wife was taken to a whole new level when Olympia was born,” he wrote in his Glamour essay. “And it was perhaps even more meaningful to be there for my wife and to adjust to this new life we created together—especially after all the complications she had during and after the birth.”
Because while Williams at least outwardly appears to be superwoman, even winning the Australian Open shortly after learning she was expecting, her labor was a terrifying endeavor in which she developed a series of blood clots, including one that traveled to her lung, creating a potentially fatal condition called a pulmonary embolism.
Ohanian enjoyed all 16 weeks of his parental leave, touting the benefits to all who would listen. And though he eventually stepped down from the board at Reddit, publicly urging them to fill his seat with a Black candidate, he then cofounded San Francisco-based venture firm Initialized Capital and served as one of the investors who worked to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to L.A.
And in 2020, he founded another venture capital firm Seven Seven Six—all while raising their spirited daughter and now her little sister.
Through it all, he understood that his career was the more flexible one, even after Williams announced she was “evolving away from tennis”.
“Research shows that men are happy to have successful wives—until it interferes with their own work,” he wrote in Glamour. “A full 50 percent of men expect their career to take precedence over their wife’s. I know this is real, because I’ve seen the tweets and comments.”
But Ohanian’s brand of assurance comes from being able to handle his career, bring up his daughters and get his butt in the stands to cheer on his endlessly talented better half.
“I try to be the most supportive partner I can be and to have conversations with her about her career goals and what she can do to reach them,” he told Glamour. “Most of my talks with Serena about her career have come from a place of ‘What do you want to be doing?’ or ‘Where do you want to be?’ and that’s not only in sport but in life.”
Being there for her and their daughters no matter what might mean setting up shop in Melbourne or Paris or London or. And his girls are regulars in his office, Ohanian’s partners, as he put it, “used to seeing Olympia jump on camera.”
They just shouldn’t expect him to pick up a call on Sunday.
Those days are reserved for family time and his dad’s pancake recipe, edited to allow for Williams’ wheat allergy and Olympia’s love of raspberries.
“There are no phones, just conversation. And we’ll spend the day together lounging around the house, or playing hide-and-seek, or going for a swim in the pool,” he told Glamour of life at home. “Just being a family on those days means so much to both of us—more than a billboard, a video montage, or a whirlwind trip to Italy.”
Though those highlights are pretty sweet as well. See how the pair continue to ace married life.
Family Time
While celebrating seven years of marriage in November 2024, Serena thanked her husband for making every day special—including making an “average November day a costume party and making it special.”
Parents’ Night Out
The couple proved they enjoy lowkey date nights just as much as their extravagant trips in a sweet glimpse into a night out in September 2024.
Growing Family
Serena and Alexis welcomed their second baby girl, Adira, in August 2023.
Farm Day
Months before expanding their brood, Serena shared a sweet glimpse into some quality family time, writing on Instagram in Sept. 2022, “Family day on the farm.”
Italian Surprise
In July 2018, the tennis champion wanted Italian food for dinner so her husband flew her to Venice, Italy. Talk about a dream date!
Family Time
The adorable couple enjoyed a day out with their little one in summer 2018.
Picture Perfect Paris
In May 2018, Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams jetted off to Paris to visit the zoo where they had their first date—with an extremely adorable plus one, Olympia, who was born eight months prior.
London Calling
The power couple looked stunning as they celebrated the marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in England in May 2018.
Regal Romance
Even though the duo was in England to celebrate the newly dubbed Duke and Duchess of Sussex, their gorgeous ensembles at the wedding and the reception had us thinking they were the royal couple for the night!
Selexis Day
Every year the couple has a special day called Selexis day where it’s all about them. In April 2018, Williams gave insight to their tradition, which—that year—was her turn to plan. She had her husband go on a scavenger hunt that ended at a venue with his childhood friends, a live band and karaoke. Oh, and they recreated their wedding cake and ate it together since they never had a piece at their actual wedding. Pretty fun, right?
Red Carpet Ready
The happy couple stole the show as they stepped out for the premiere of Williams’ HBO documentary series Being Serena in April 2018.
Team USA
In addition to cheering on his wife at as many of her tennis matches as possible, Ohanian takes in a ton of sporting events with Williams. Together they are all about Team USA, and it makes us love them even more.
Spartan Squad
When Williams isn’t playing tennis she is participating in Spartan races with her closest friends and family, which of course includes her husband.
All Dolled Up
These two definitely clean up well and are always up for a fundraising gala.
I Do
In November 2017, Williams and Ohanian tied the knot in New Orleans and it was pure magic. The couple looked so happy throughout the night and we’re still not over the Olympic athlete’s gorgeous wedding gown.
French Connection
In May 2017, the lovebirds took a trip to France. While there they took their romance up a notch while taking in all of the breathtaking sunsets.
Met Gala Glam
Williams looked gorgeous as she stepped out at the 2017 Met Gala and showed off her baby bump for the first time alongside her then-fiancé Ohanian.
Prince Charming
Get yourself a man who will carry you for no reason on a beach!
Ride or Die
In February 2017, the Reddit co-founder posted this sweet shot dedicated to “My #WCW, every day,” and we seriously can’t get enough of these two together.
Bear-y Cute
Early on in their romance the duo sported matching bear costumes at a party and it was bear-y cute…get it?
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