Serena Williams on GLP-1s, Motherhood, and Redefining Diet Culture

The most famous female tennis player of our time is on a GLP-1 drug. If that makes you have some feelings, 23-time Grand Slam champion and decorated Olympian Serena Williams understands. “GLP-1s have gotten a stigma, and I feel like there should be more open conversation,” she tells me. “A lot of people are on them, and it’s okay to be on them.” Williams is the new ambassador for the telehealth start-up Ro, joining former basketball star Charles Barkley, who also announced in April that he was on a GLP-1 drug via the company. (In full transparency, her team disclosed that Williams’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, is a Ro investor and on the board.) Below, Williams talks to ELLE about why she decided to start using a GLP-1 and the diet-culture myths she hopes the drug will help dismantle.

Did the decision to go on a GLP-1 come from your doctor?

I do a lot of research on everything that’s out on the market. After I had my second kid, I lost a lot of weight within two weeks. But after that [time], no matter what I did, I couldn’t [lose any more weight]. Every single day, I would get my 30,000 steps. I ran and trained. Even after my first daughter, I never got back to the level that I wanted to be.

In the HBO documentary Being Serena, my coach talks to me about my weight, and at the time, I was thinking, “This is a tough conversation,” because you could already see me physically doing every single thing. I needed to try something different, so I was like, I’m going to have to try these GLP-1s and see how it affects my body.

Are you on a specific GLP-1?

I am on Zepbound through Ro.

What’s your experience like on the drug?

I have a lot of illnesses, so I’m so used to injections, and they didn’t bother me at all. I haven’t had any side effects. But every single person and every body is different. My body is like a stallion.

You posted some pictures recently, and fans “defended” you by saying you weren’t on a GLP-1 drug. Some even called the speculation negative. How do you feel about it being characterized that way?

First off, I never heard or read that. I don’t read any stuff, but it’s important to talk about what I am doing. I like to have very honest conversations with myself. I’ve always been a pretty transparent person, probably because I grew up on the very public tennis court in front of millions of people.

Everyone’s journey is different. I work out. I don’t “just” take them. You can see all the work that I do and how my body really didn’t change until I got on one. It was really important for me and for my confidence to be at the weight that I’m used to being on. It is also very healthy for me, especially for my body, joints, and knees, particularly as I get a little bit older. Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion. But it’s important for me to own my own narrative and tell my own story.

Like you alluded to, people sometimes think that going on a GLP-1 is the lazy way to lose weight.

That’s exactly why it is so important to tell my story. There are a lot of people out there who can relate—maybe they have had a child, and they’re like, Okay, I’ve done everything. I’ve gone to the gym. [They may need to] hear that Serena not only did the gym, she played professional tennis, did all the training, and [even] she could never get to where she was at when she was her healthiest. I’m not trying to get to the way I was when I was 16, but I want to be at a healthy place.

People want and need to hear that it’s not the easy way out. It’s not. It is something that I feel like my body personally needed.

Do you think GLP-1 drugs are upending this long-held idea that losing weight comes down to willpower?

I can speak to that personally. I was traveling on tour, playing a professional sport at a very high level, eating extremely healthy. It didn’t matter what I did—there were just some things that wouldn’t change.

A lot of people can say, “Well, I don’t want to go on a GLP-1, because I can change the way I eat.” But they don’t understand. Sometimes people do change the way they eat. They do change the way they work out. They do absolutely everything, and it doesn’t work. That may not be everyone’s story, but that’s my story.

I remember training before my last US Open. I was training for four hours in the sun in the summer in July or August. I didn’t even eat that day because I was working out so hard, and I always eat after I work out. But I didn’t lose anything. I actually had a stomach. I always was curious about that. I was like, How is it that I can be training for four hours, and I still have this extra mom weight on me?

Has being on a GLP-1 affected your muscle mass?

No, I actually weigh more than I look. I have a ton of muscle on me. I look lighter than what I actually am because of my muscle mass. So again, everyone’s story could be different. That’s just my personal body.

Does it affect your appetite?

Yes, and that’s what I think a GLP-1 does. It definitely does make a difference in your appetite. I don’t really know, but I think it also gave me something that my body may have been just missing. I am still trying to understand more of the science behind it. I know that some people haven’t been able to eat as much, but I still have a pretty interesting appetite.

Has it quieted any food noise?

I’ve never been a foodie. I’ve never been a person that thinks about food or their next meal, because as a professional athlete, that’s never what I think about. I never really had food noise. Sometimes I forget to eat, so it’s totally different for me.

Would you have considered using GLP-1 drugs while you were playing professional tennis?

To be perfectly honest, I wish I had this after I had [my daughter] Olympia. I wonder what would have happened if I was actually able to lose the extra weight that I needed to lose, even though I had done everything that I could. It makes me think, but I try not to think too hard about it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.