Serena Williams gives birth to second child, a daughter

PTI, Aug 23, 2023, 9:38 AM IST

Serena Williams has given birth to a baby girl, she posted on Instagram, almost exactly a year after her last match as a tennis star.

Adira River Ohanian is the second child — and second daughter — for the 41-year-old Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Their first, Olympia, was born in 2017.

Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles during a career that transcended her sport, revealed at the Met Gala in May that she was pregnant.

When she told the world in August 2022 she was preparing to close her playing career, Williams cited a desire to grow her family as one of the main reasons for walking away from tennis.

“Believe me,” Williams wrote last year in an essay for Vogue magazine, “I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.” The 2022 U.S. Open was her last tournament. She reached the third round in New York by beating second-seeded Anett Kontaveit before losing to Ajla Tomljanovic on Sept. 3.