Tennis legend Serena Williams has once again found herself at the center of criticism about her appearance.
After a video surfaced on social media of Williams walking out of the Ritz-Carlton hotel with her husband, Alexis Ohanian, in Paris, reactions from many online users quickly devolved into a flurry of negative comments about her looks, claiming she’s “lost herself.”
Serena Williams looks dishelved in new video while out in Paris with husband, Alexis Ohanian. (Photo: @Serenawilliams/Instagram)
It appears that William and her husband were taking a family vacay with the kids away from their Florida home, according to other photos on her and Alexis’ Instagram pages.
However, trolls mostly focused on the tennis star’s frizzy hair and scowling countenance to suggest that something isn’t right in the world of the woman considered by some as the greatest female athlete of all time.
Vendetta Daily posted a video of her wrapped in a long black sweater coat with white trim and sandals on its Instagram page for its 37.8K followers. The cameras captured Williams as she walked with her cellphone in hand and her peach-colored Gucci pocketbook in another.
While the entire clip was no more than 1 minute, followers were quick to weigh in with their takes on why the mother of two small children looked disheveled.
Some comments focused on Williams’ looks, suggesting that she had cosmetic surgery, not unflattering makeup, that has ruined her looks.
“Message to all Black woman, leave your bodies and faces alone!!! Plastic surgery was not created for you,” one person posted. Another said, “Poor thing…who ever worked on her face should get sued…they did a really bad job.”
Other comments focused on her estimated $95 million net worth and opined that “Serena is too rich is too rich to be looking like a hobo.” An Instagram user also wrote, “She just threw that wig on and said let’s go.”
But not everyone sought to tear her down or seemed to be, as one person put it, “mean.”
“Y’all are mean… you never know what people be going through” a fan offered, as another one said, “The greatest tennis player alive and all they think about is her looks.”
This is not the first time that Serena has been under fire for her looks. Even her daughter has harmlessly checked her a time or two.
In 2023, Serena shared a story with her followers a story about the time her eldest daughter, Olympia Ohanian Jr., outed her for wearing a wig. After receiving a compliment on her hair from a “nice lady,” she said the then-5-year-old quickly informed the woman, “It’s a wig.”
Fans could not help but crack up at the child’s innocence, saying, “kids are so savage” and “Kids will always expose you.”
The backlash surrounding her mom’s looks comes two months after Serena launched her own makeup line, WYN Beauty. Even the fact that she stepped into the beauty space has been criticized more harshly than when other celebrities like Fenty Beauty owner Rihanna did.
Why? Because the tennis champ’s current skin color or foundation is far lighter than the chocolate brown the world fell in love with when she was actively playing. People have gone as far as to suggest that Williams has even bleached her skin to appear lighter.
The new line is a 10-piece vegan and cruelty-free line that features makeup staples like skin tint, concealer, lip and cheek color, matte and featherweight lipsticks, lip serum, eyebrow pencils, eyeliner, as well as long-wear, water-proof, and lengthening mascaras.