Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are having a baby girl!
The 23-time Grand Slam champion and her husband, the co-founder of Reddit, announced the exciting news in a video on her YouTube channel Monday.
The two are already parents to Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., who is 5.
Williams said in her video that the family was going to a combination “baby show/gender reveal” and that she was “obviously” team pink.
“I’m a little nervous because I don’t have any contingency plan if it turns out to be a boy,” she said.
But before the couple could figure out the sex of their baby, Ohanian tried out a “little bit of a prank” on his wife and daughter. He got Serena a cake to cut into ― with a blue inside revealing it was a boy or a pink interior showing that it was a girl ― but instead, he made the inside yellow.
“I’m doing this because I want to troll her and Olympia into thinking that this is the reveal of Jelly Bean,” he said, revealing the name of what they called their little one for the time being.
“She will cut into this cake, probably be disappointed, and hopefully ― hopefully ― appreciate my troll,” Ohanian said. “But, we’ll see. I don’t know if she’s gonna be a professional about it. She might see this cake come out, roll her eyes, and say, ‘This guy had one job, and he gave me a goddamn cake gender reveal.’ But we’ll see. There’s a reveal after the reveal.”
While Williams jokingly attempted to smash cake on her husband’s face after the prank, he directed everyone “to the heavens” for a drone show that would actually reveal the sex (around minute 5 in the video below).
Williams announced she was expecting at the Met Gala earlier this year, telling an interviewer, “There’s three of us here” while walking the red carpet with her husband.
The tennis legend spoke about wanting to grow her family in an interview with Vogue last year when she announced her retirement ― er, evolution ― from tennis.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” the tennis great shared with the outlet. “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family. Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity.”
“Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia,” she added. “I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital — although things got super complicated on the other side.”
The Serena Ventures managing partner said at the time, “But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give.”
Williams spoke with People magazine in February 2022 about balancing her career and having more children.
“I know the clock is ticking, so I’m just like OK, I need to figure out when that’s going to be,” she said. “But hopefully soon when I will feel no pressure.”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images
Williams accidentally revealed that she was pregnant with her first child in 2017. The tennis great simply posted a message that said “20 weeks” on her Snapchat account — something she said she didn’t mean to make public.
“I was on vacation, taking time for myself, and I have this thing where I’ve been checking my status and taking a picture every week,” she told Gayle King at a Ted conference in 2017.
“I’ve been just saving it, but you know how social media is — you press the wrong button and … My phone doesn’t ring that much, and 30 minutes later, I’d missed four calls. So I picked it up and realized, ‘Oh no.’”