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Serena Williams is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, male or female. Ever since she turned professional in 1995, she has dominated her oppositions. So far, she has 23 Grand Slam singles titles to her name — it is the most by any player in the Open Era and she is only behind Margaret Court, who has 24, for the all-time Grand Slam singles titles. On top of that, she has won four Olympic gold medals; 3 for Doubles (2000 Sydney, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London) and 1 for Singles (2012 London). In this post, though, we're here to talk about Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian.
Due to her success, Serena Williams is currently the highest-earning woman athlete of all time. In 2021, she was ranked by Forbes at No. 28 in their list of The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes in 2021. Along with her sister, Venus, the Williams sisters are credited for paving the way for a new era of power and athleticism in the world of women’s professional tennis. However, in this article, we will be talking about her better half and a person who is almost equally successful in his field. We are here to talk about Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian.
Serena Williams' Husband Alexis Ohanian
One can say that Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams are a power couple, in a sense that they are both very successful in their respective fields. Serena is one of the all-time greats in tennis, while Alexis is the co-founder and executive chairman of one of the biggest social media platforms, Reddit.
But, before we take an in-depth look at their relationship, let us learn more about Serena Williams’ husband.
Alexis Kerry Ohanian was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 24, 1983, and he is of Armenian descent as his grandparents came to the United States as refugees after the Armenian genocide.
He went to high school at Howard High School in Ellicott City, Maryland. Despite not being valedictorian, Alexis was tasked to give the students address during their graduation in 2001.
After graduating, he attended the University of Virginia where he got his degree in commerce and history in 2005.
Later, Ohanian and his friend, Steve Huffman, pitched the idea of a mobile food ordering service called MyMobileMenu to the company Y Combinator. Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, rejected their idea.
However, Graham called Ohanian and Huffman the following day to give them an idea for a possible successful project — the idea which eventually became Reddit.
“I'm sorry, we made a mistake. We don't like your idea, but we like you guys,” Paul Graham said. “You guys need to build the front page of the Internet.”
Unfortunately, for Alexis, the road he traveled to build Reddit was a very challenging time for him. A month after they created Reddit, the mom of his then-girlfriend called him saying that her daughter fell from a balcony on the fifth floor in Germany and was in a coma — she was released a few months later.
After that, Ohanian’s father called telling him that they are at the hospital because his mom had a seizure and the doctors discovered a brain tumor.
Fortunately, after 16 months of working on Reddit with Y Combinator as their first batch of start-ups, the global mass media company Condé Nast bought Reddit in 2006 for an amount between $10 million to $12 million.
“Founders are supposed to be not at all interested in selling. But there is a price at which a founder can't help being interested.” Alexis Ohanian said.
Alexis Ohanian continued to work with Reddit after the sale as a member of its board of directors. After three years, he left to focus on other ventures such as Breadpig (founded in 2007), a company that produces “geeky” merchandise and the proceeds go to charities.
In 2010, he helped found the travel website Hipmunk and he now acts as an adviser. In the same year, Alexis Ohanian launched his own company, Das Kapital Capital, which focuses on investing, advising, and consulting in various start-up ideas.
Aside from his work as an entrepreneur, Ohanian also supports causes that are important to him, On June 5, 2020, he resigned from Reddit’s board as he asked to be replaced by an African-American candidate in response to the murder of George Floyd.
The following month, Ohanian became the lead investor in a primarily female group that was awarded a new franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League — the team was eventually revealed as Angel City FC and it is based in Los Angeles. Aside from him, the ownership group includes 14 members of the US women’s national soccer team, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner, and Serena Williams, to name a few.
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Let us now learn more about Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams’ relationship.
Williams and Ohanian met each other by chance in 2015 when they were in Rome. During that time, Serena was participating in the Italian Open and Alexis was a speaker at a tech conference, and both of them stayed at the Cavalieri Hotel.
Serena and her colleagues went to go to the breakfast buffet served by the hotel. Unfortunately, the buffet closed five minutes before they arrived, so they went at sat at a table along the pool area, and ordered breakfast from there. As for Alexis, he also went to the pool area and sat at the table next to Serena’s, which annoyed her and her colleagues as there were a lot of empty tables to choose from.
One of Serena’s colleagues told Alexis that there’s a rat by your table, in an effort to make him move. Ohanian replied “I’m from Brooklyn. I see rats all the time.” Serena then invited Alexis to join them at the table and eventually invited him to watch her match that night.
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Their first date was in Paris when Serena was participating in the French Open and Alexis suggested coming to Paris for the weekend. They strolled for six hours, just taking in the city’s beautiful scenery.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
In December 2016, Alexis flew Serena to the Cavalieri Hotel, the place where they first met. Williams eventually realized why he was flying her out to Italy all of a sudden.
“I knew it was coming. I was like, ‘Serena, you’re 35, you’re ready. This is what you want.’ ” she said.
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The following month, Serena Williams learned that she was pregnant. On September 1, 2017, their daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, was born in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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On November 16, 2017, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian tied the knot at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. Their guests include some big stars like Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, and tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.
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As of right now, the power couple is still going strong and they are still successful in their respective fields.
In 2011 and 2013, Alexis Ohanian was included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. As of this writing, Celebrity Net Worth estimates his net worth to be valued at $40 million. Of course, that doesn’t compare to Serena Williams’ net worth in 2022 which is valued at $250 million. Needless to say, both of them are self-made and they are enjoying the fruits of their labor.
Here’s to Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian in paving the way for others in their fields and inspiring athletes and entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams!
