Serena Williams fans need some persuading to believe the affection between her and her husband Alexis Ohanian.
On March 15, fans online took notice of a cute and rare video the tennis icon posted featuring Ohanian and her mom, Oracene Price.
What appeared to be a photo turned into a highlight moment when the Reddit co-founder suddenly slides in, squeezing Williams closer to her mom. With a wide-mouth smile, Ohanian places his arm around her back before his wife grabs his left hand and placed it on her hip for the optics.
Williams wrote, “Causally taking a pic with my mom and look who photobombs. Gotta love it,” as her caption.
She added several cute pictures that followed the video, including a few of the trio posing with all smiles followed by four pictures of her and Ohanian.
In the comments, many gushed over the photos, even noting how good his mother-in-law looked at 72. One wrote, “We love this so much,” while a second person said, “Mom is just so beautiful though! … and the Ohanians be making us feel all types of [love emojis].”
Meanwhile, a few critical fans were not so convinced that the “love” shown in the video was real.
One said, “But it’s sucks sometimes to force someone to give you attention? It’s like you automatically force them to love you ?”
Someone else wrote, “First time I ever seen that she never show affection towards him .. she was all over the brother and they were not even into her like her husband is.”
A third even brought up old rumors about them splitting, asking, “Thought they were divorcing. You haters, will never have happiness in your lifetime.”
Last summer, Williams and Ohanian had fans worried that their seven-year marriage might be coming to an end. Their followers on Instagram started to notice that Williams had stopped posting footage of her husband on her personal page. It also seemed like speculation until Williams began making many solo appearances at big events. But neither party has confirmed any rumors about a separation.
Williams and Ohanian met in May 2015 in Rome when they were coincidentally staying at the Cavalieri Hotel and sat near each other during breakfast. The proximity sparked up a conversation that led to Williams inviting her future-husband to watch her tennis match.
They were engaged the following year after Ohanian proposed in the same hotel they had met in. In April 2017, the pair welcomed their first daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. and their second daughter, Adira River Ohanian, in August 2023.