Many have marveled at tennis icon Serena Williams’ weight loss journey, but some may not know that she received some help along the way. The star athlete shared she used weight loss drugs to help achieve her fitness goals in a recent interview with the Today show. Williams began a class of weight loss medications called GLP-1 receptor agonists, which include common drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
“As an athlete and as someone who has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place, and believe me, I don’t take shortcuts. I do everything but shortcuts,” Williams said while on TODAY.
During the interview, Serena also explained how her weight had always remained at a certain point, despite her being an active athlete.
“I literally was playing a professional sport, and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health, for my healthy weight, no matter what I did,” she said. “I would always lose a lot of weight, and then I would stay. No matter what I did, I couldn’t go lower than that one number.”
The entrepreneur has managed to lower her weight below that point, having lost 31 pounds to date since consistently taking the medication in April. In addition to looking snatched, another driver for Serena to use weight loss drugs was health concerns. The four-time Olympic gold medalist shared that diabetes runs in her family, and she was worried about her knees. African American adults also have a higher risk of being diagnosed with the health condition. She also hoped that losing weight would relieve pressure on her knees.
“I had a lot of issues with my knees, especially after I had my kid,” she said. “That, quite frankly, definitely had an effect on maybe some wins that I could have had in my career.”
Williams, 43, is now a mother to two beautiful daughters. She had her eldest, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. in 2017. About six years later in 2023, the mom of two had Adira River Ohanian.
People often criticize individuals who choose to take weight loss drugs, assuming they don’t want to put in hard work. Williams told PEOPLE that deciding to take weight loss drugs wasn’t about trying to take the easy way out.
“I had never taken shortcuts in my career and always worked really hard. I know what it takes to be the best,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion said. “So it was very frustrating to do all the same things and never be able to change that number on the scale or the way my body looked.”
Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tracy Morgan are other celebrities who publicly shared that they used weight loss drugs. We’re glad to see ur pro athlete feeling confident in her body and achieving that by doing what’s best for her.