Serena Williams has dealt with bad line calls, dodgy umpiring, and the occasional broken racket, but being accused of witchcraft? That’s a new one.
Serena hits back at bizarre ‘black magic’ claim
The 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed on her Stockton Street podcast that a former opponent once claimed she relied on “black magic” to win matches.
“The craziest thing I ever heard about me was that I did witchcraft, black magic because I was beating some girl a lot,” she told her sister and co-host Venus Williams, alongside guest Ciara.
“And so she claimed that we did black magic to beat her.”
Venus then chimed in with her own memory of the bizarre story.
“From what I understand, someone on her team consulted a black magician to beat you,” she added, drawing laughter from the trio.
The sisters didn’t name the opponent, but the tone made clear that the whole idea was ridiculous.
For a player with more than 850 career wins and 23 majors, Serena’s dominance never needed supernatural help — just some training and a killer serve.
She held the world No. 1 ranking for 319 weeks, completed a career Grand Slam twice, and collected Olympic golds for fun. If that counts as witchcraft, plenty of players would love to learn her spell book.
Life after tennis still keeps her in the spotlight
The podcast segment quickly spread online, with fans joking her opponents finally have an excuse for all those defeats. Others praised Serena’s humour in addressing one of the strangest rumours ever thrown her way.
The discussion came during a light-hearted chat about the wildest things each guest had heard about themselves. Ciara mentioned being told she “couldn’t do everything while being a mom,” something Serena instantly related to.
“It’s as if it’s a negative thing, right?” she said. “You can have kids and still do it all.” Williams, who shares two daughters with husband Alexis Ohanian, has often spoken about the challenges of balancing motherhood and competition.
Since stepping away from tennis in 2022, she’s turned her focus to business ventures, fitness, and family life. Earlier this year, she revealed she’d lost over 30 pounds through a new health routine, saying she feels “light physically and light mentally.”
READ NEXT: KYLIE JENNER’S FORMER TOWNHOUSE NAMED IN FBI’S NBA GAMBLING PROBE
