Serena Williams is opening up about her health journey, revealing that she turned to weight loss medication after years of frustration trying to reach her goals.
Speaking with PEOPLE, the tennis legend admitted, “I feel great. I feel really good and healthy. I feel light physically and light mentally.”
Williams explained that the challenges began after she welcomed her first daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017. “I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained,” she said. “It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion reflected on the frustration of putting in the same relentless effort that defined her career, only to see no change. “I had never taken shortcuts in my career and always worked really hard. I know what it takes to be the best,” Williams explained. “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.”
Her struggle returned after giving birth to her second daughter, Adira River, in August 2023. She initially dropped weight quickly but then progress stopped. “I never lost another pound,” she revealed, admitting there were moments she wondered, “I just thought, gosh, I don’t know if I would ever be able to get back to where I needed to get to.”
In the end, she decided to try a GLP-1 medication to help regulate her body. “I did a lot of research on it. I was like, ‘is this a shortcut? What are the benefits? What are not the benefits?’ I really wanted to dive into it before I just did it,” Williams said.