Take that! Alexis Ohanian defended wife Serena Williams amid criticism of her age and weight from billionaire businessman Ion Tiriac.
In an interview on Romanian television, the 81-year-old Madrid Open tournament director said that “at this age and the weight she is now,” Williams, 39, should end her career. Ohanian, 37, caught wind of the interview and disagreed, tweeting, “Safe to say no one gives a damn what Ion Tiriac thinks.”
In a separate tweet, the Reddit cofounder wrote, “Had to Google it … turns out my 3 year old has more Grand Slam victories than this.”
Ohanian later called Tiriac a “racist/sexist clown,” adding that there was “no holding back” when it comes to his family. Williams hasn’t publicly responded to Tiriac’s comments at this time.
This isn’t the first time the Romanian former tennis pro has commented on Williams’ weight. In 2018, he was slammed for discussing the 23-time Grand Slam winner’s age and weight in an interview with Sport Bid, saying he “would like to see a player like Steffi Graf.”
Williams responded in an interview with The New York Times, saying that “people are entitled to their opinion.” She noted that she found his comments “ignorant” and “sexist” regardless and vowed to address it.
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“Clearly there’s more to women’s tennis than me,” she said at the time. “There’s a lot more, but I’ll have words with him, believe me, I’ll have words with him. It’s an ignorant comment, and it’s a sexist comment, and maybe he’s an ignorant man.”
The tennis player married Ohanian in November 2017 after getting engaged nearly a year earlier in December 2016. Williams announced that she was pregnant in April 2017 when she accidentally shared a Snapchat photo of her bump with all her followers. The couple’s daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., was born in September 2017 — eight months after her mom competed in and won a Grand Slam tournament while secretly pregnant.
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