Tennis legend Serena Williams, throughout her illustrious career, has consistently defied conventional notions of femininity in tennis, and her powerful, athletic physique has been a recurring subject of public discourse.
Recently, after years of trial and error, Williams, lost 30 pounds due to a weight loss drug she is taking, which she openly promoted on “Today” to viewers and fans this week.
“A lot of people have been wondering about my new fitness journey and what I’ve been doing, and I’ve been really open about me being on GLP-1s,” Williams said proudly. “… For me, it was really just about taking away that stigma of like, ‘Is it a lazy way? Is it a shortcut? Why did you do that?’”
After having two children over the last eight years, Williams, 43, struggled to lose weight no matter what she tried, before leaning on friends who swore by her latest lifestyle change.
GLP-1s are a class of drugs, also called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, that mimic a natural hormone to help control blood sugar, appetite and digestion.
“This all started after I had my (first) kid,” she said. “As a woman, you go through different cycles in your life. … No matter what I did — running, walking, I would walk for hours because they say that’s good, I literally was playing a professional sport — and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different.”
Williams had a dominant tennis career, becoming one of the greatest of all time by winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 73 WTA Tour titles, and two Olympic gold medals. Her career was marked by incredible longevity, overcoming ridicule and periods of injury to become a powerful advocate for women in sports and business.
Williams’ post-tennis career includes philanthropy, building a successful venture capital fund, and continuing to influence fashion and culture.
Todderick Hunt covers Sports and Culture and Recruiting. Have a story idea or a tip? He can be reached atthunt@njadvancemedia.com.
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