Serena Williams and her baby girl, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., are one of the most adorable mommy-daughter duos we’ve seen on Instagram to date.
One of the things fans love most about Williams is her willingness to be candid about her journey to motherhood. As part of this transparency, Williams, who had both an unplanned C-section and emergency surgery after the birth of baby Olympia, recently opened up about the fears she once had about dealing with post-surgery scarring and discomfort. After finding her own success with it, Williams has partnered with embrace® Active Scar Defense, a scar therapy system she used to help prevent the formation of scar tissue post C-section, to help promote awareness of the brand, which uses clear silicone dressing to hold the sides of an incision together and help with better healing. We sat down with Williams to talk about some of the other high points in her life since she welcomed Olympia to the world.
Though the 36-year-old tennis star, who just made her tenth appearance at the Wimbledon finals in July, has been open and honest about her struggles becoming a mom, she also lets fans and her followers in on the high moments with her baby girl too.
Among those moments of joy for the proud mom is the fact that Alexis Olympia has already started to embrace her inner Virgo. During an exclusive interview with ESSENCE, Williams revealed that her 11-month-old daughter likes order and that she’s a perfectionist.
Sounds like a quintessential Virgo, right?
“I hope she doesn’t kill me in a few years, but the second she has a potty in her diaper, she’s miserable,” Williams tells ESSENCE. “She’s very clean. She needs that handled straight away. She’s also really particular about her food. She’s only 10 months, but I can tell that she loves things to be clean. I know that sounds weird, but she loves things to be clean…already!”
In addition to Williams basking in her daughter’s Virgo personality traits, she also shared the one thing that Alexis Olympia does every morning that excites her as a mother.
“Well, every moment…every morning when she first sees me, she squeals,” Williams says. “Everyday, I’d come home from one of my matches and Wimbledon, and she’d just squeal each time she’d see me. I’d try my best to rush home, and I’d miss her still. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before—the best thing I’ve ever heard.”
We can’t wait to witness more milestone moments between the budding Instagram star and her world-class athlete mommy.
Reporting by Charli Penn