When it comes to managing her health, Serena Williams knows the ball is in her court.
So when the tennis star—celebrating her 44th birthday Sept. 26—wanted to lose weight after welcoming daughters Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, with husband Alexis Ohanian, she formed a game plan.
Despite running, walking, playing a professional sport and changing her diet, “I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health,” Serena explained to Today.com last month. “Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different.”
For her, that included taking a GLP-1 medication. Although, the athlete was initially hesitant.
“When GLP-1s came out, I was like, ‘No way, no how. That’s not for me. Don’t sign me up,'” she continued. “But then I looked at it as a sport, like as an opponent: OK, I can’t beat this opponent no matter what I do.”
Since starting the medication, Serena has lost 31 pounds and has explained why she wanted to be open about her journey.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d ever talk about this publicly,” the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said in an August video for Ro, the healthcare company that counts her as a paid spokesperson and her husband as a board member, “but I think it’s time we change the conversation.”
After all, Serena had candid conversations about her health, including her injuries, throughout her career.
“The sport has torn me up,” she said in a 2022 piece for ELLE months before announcing her retirement. “I’ve rolled my ankles, busted my knees, played with a taped-up Achilles heel, and quit midgame from back spasms. I’ve suffered every injury imaginable, and I know my body.”
And she knows the importance of advocating for one’s health. Like when Serena—who had a pulmonary embolism in 2011—told a nurse she needed a CAT scan and blood thinner after giving birth to Olympia in 2017. At the time, her concerns about a second embolism dismissed.
“Lo and behold, I had a blood clot in my lungs,” she added, “and they needed to insert a filter into my veins to break up the clot before it reached my heart.”
While Serena was treated—sharing she had a hematoma in addition to her blood clots and that she underwent three more surgeries in the seven days after her C-section—she knows this isn’t the case for everyone.
“In the U.S., Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts. Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable,” she continued. “Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me; I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.”
This wasn’t Serena’s only health scare. Last year, she also had benign branchial cyst removed. “It was so big,” she shared in a 2024 TikTok. “It was the size of a grapefruit.”
In addition to speaking about her physical health, Serena has championed discussions about mental health.
“Like many of you, I faced challenges that tested my spirit and resilience,” she wrote on Instagram Sept. 16. “Life can sometimes feel overwhelming and it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters—your mental health and well-being. I took some time away to breathe, to reconnect with myself, and to remember that it’s perfectly okay to pause and reconnect. Even if it’s just a quiet night to yourself. Anything counts.”
And as Serena enters her 44th year, she continues to count on taking care of herself.
“I’ve learned that the end of a matter is better than its beginning,” she continued. “And even though things haven’t reached their end yet, I’m also learning to let go and live life one moment at a time.”
Keep reading to see photos of Serena through the years.
1998
1998
1999
