"I have high expectations, and I have high standards."
Serena Williams is just about everywhere lately. She’s sandwiched between Caitlin Clark and Eli Manning at the NFL’s Annual League Meeting and sitting courtside at the Miami Open. She’s crip walking at the Super Bowl halftime show and strutting down the red carpet at the Vanity Fair Oscars party. She’s exploring new business ventures as the founder of WYN Beauty and an investor in the WNBA’s newest expansion team, the Toronto Tempo. She’s baking pie and cooking gumbo in the kitchen with her daughters, Olympia and Adira.
You also may have spotted her in the newest TV spot for the 2025 Lincoln Navigator, airing during March Madness. The ad depicts microphones falling from the sky, until finally Serena catches one—and drops it herself. What else would you expect from a 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion?
“This is the one car that basically drops the mic on everything else that's ever been released,” Serena exclusively tells Women’s Health. “So that's kind of how I look at the mic drop. It's like, this is the car. Drop the mic. Let's go.”
You could say the same for Serena’s career, which is bookmarked by legendary mic-drop moments of her own. Ahead, she reflects on the biggest ones—as well as what’s on the horizon in her work and in life.
Women's Health: In BTS footage from the commercial shoot, you shared your biggest mic-drop moment: winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant. Looking back on it now, did you ever expect that moment to be as iconic as it is?
Serena Williams: Honestly, I never thought about it. But if I were to think about it, yeah, that is a heck of a mic-drop moment. And it should be iconic. I mean, women should be celebrated, but the fact that you are winning Grand Slams and you're pregnant—and nine weeks pregnant, not two weeks, which is hard enough at two weeks.
And not dropping a set!
Yeah, that's definitely a mic-drop moment.
How do you view the state of women's sports now, and where do you see it going?
I think the state of women's sports is amazing. I think it's exciting. I've always thought it was exciting. I've always been really bullish in women's sports, obviously. But I think people are now just realizing how amazing and how great we are as athletes, and it took a long time for them to realize that. But we've always been great, and we've always been amazing.
What are you most excited for as an investor in the Toronto Tempo?
I've always been involved as an athlete, or in some different space. On the manager side, it's totally, totally different—down to picking out, not necessarily our team, but what does upper management look like? Being a part of those conversations and making sure that we have the right people that are bringing the right winning mentality to the game, and to our team in particular. It is so different and it's so rewarding and so exciting.
How do you use your experiences as an athlete to inform those decisions you're making?
In tennis, you really had to build a team from scratch and understand how to do it, and that has been super helpful. Being a part of it in a different way is just—I don't know what to expect, honestly. But obviously, I have high expectations, and I have high standards, and I look forward to pushing people to being as great as I feel like we should all push ourselves to be.
How do you and your husband [entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian] choose what to invest in and use your influence on at this critical time for women in sport?
For me, investments always have to be very authentic. You don't want to do something just because. I love the WNBA, and that was something that I really enjoyed. So I try to invest in things that I really like. We obviously look at the business—that clearly makes a huge difference—but I like to authentically do things. That's kind of how we think about it.
Alexis has been doing this forever. Honestly, I feel like he started a lot of this with what he did with Angel City and putting in that first big check for those first three founders—that was really huge. [Ohanian was a founding investor in the NWSL club alongside actress Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman, and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman.]
You have been open about the way you are taking care of your body in this phase of your life. How do you view strength and fitness now versus when you were younger?
Fitness will always be a part of my life. My whole life has been fitness, so it's weird now that I'm not necessarily playing professional sport. It's still a huge part of my life. I think I view it the same. I try to be fit. I think the older you get, the more muscle you want—I know I do. Living a healthy life is so important for me.
How do you view body image now, especially as a mom to daughters?
I've always been someone that felt like you have to just love who you are, and I've always felt that way. I just try to be the best person I can be, and that's all I try to do. And for my kids to see that—that's it. I don't try to be anything different.
