Serena Williams has had to constantly weigh up the costs her career will have on her personal life.
Serena Williams’ career comes with a “big cost” to her personal life.
The 43-year-old has been on top of the world – claiming 23 grand slam titles and becoming the world’s number one women’s singles player – with her tennis career, as well as becoming a successful businesswoman with her WYN Beauty make-up range.
However behind closed doors, the superstar – who has two daughters, Alexis, seven, and Adira, 18 months, with her husband Alexis Ohanian – has been battling the pros and cons of how her professional-making decisions could impact her family and relationships her “whole life”.
Serena – who lives in Florida – told PEOPLE at her WYN Beauty x Shopify pop-up event in Los Angeles on April 11: “Yeah, it definitely costs a lot.
“I’m here [in California] without my kids, and that’s a big cost for me because I spend a lot of time with my children, and they’re very attached to me, which a part of me loves. So, it’s always some cost.”
The four-time Olympic gold medalist has said the decisions she has made in her career have been “very expensive” and has had to take a lot of time to figure out if they are “worth it” in the long haul.
She added: “My whole life I’ve had to kind of weigh, like, ‘If I wanna win a championship, well what is that going to cost me?’
“It’s going to cost me time with my family, it’s going to cost me friends, it’s going to cost me relationships.
“And they’re very expensive. You have to decide if it’s worth it for you.”
Serena has previously admitted she never really cared about the money side of being a tennis star – she just wanted to win.
During a 2024 episode of ‘Hot Ones’, Serena was asked about getting her first $1 million pay cheque and she explained: “I never really spent a lot of money.
“I went through the drive-thru … and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this’, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK’.
“I never played for money. I played ’cause I loved the sport … I don’t even know if I wanted to play to be the best, I wanted to win.
“So my tax guy, he would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich’, ‘Oh, I forget that one in Moscow’… I was just playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking – I was just so angry that I wanted to find a way to get better and win the next time.”
Serena Williams believes fame comes at a ‘big cost’
