(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage/Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Serena Williams continues to play at Wimbledon but she made time to catch up with her longtime friend Meghan Markle and news of the pair’s meet up has brought racist commenters out of the woodwork.
Williams, along with her husband Alexis Ohanian, showed up with the Dutchess of Sussex Saturday to cheer on Prince Harry as he played in a charity polo match, E! Online reported. Harry, who wed Markle at the royal wedding in front of Williams and other celebrity guests in May, won the Audi Polo Challenge with his team 5-2.
Additionally, sources told Entertainment Tonight that Markle will show up at Wimbledon to cheer on the 23-time Grand Slam champion, likely sometime next week.
Still, when asked about the possibility of seeing the Duchess in the player’s box, Williams played coy with reporters at a press conference.
“I don’t know, we’ll see. If I keep winning,” she said.
Yet the upbeat news became fodder for trolls as racist and bigoted comments began emerging online.
“Special menu of fried chicken and watermelon.”
“Blacks always pull for each other…what’s new?”
“For how long do we have to put up with this Black man in women’s tennis? [And] there is no such thing as ‘the newly minted royal,’ you either are born a royal or you are none of the kind.”
“Harry loves riding brown meat.”
“Is that Harry riding Serena? Hope they won”
“Meghan and her two dude friends watching a polo match, what’s wrong with that?”
Williams has especially been plagued by racist remarks throughout her career, especially as it relates to her muscular physique. She addressed the issue in a letter to her then-newborn daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.
“I’ve been called [a] man because I appeared outwardly strong,” she said in part. “It has been said that I use drugs. It has been said I don’t belong in women’s sports — that I belong in men’s — because I look stronger than many other women do. (No, I just work hard and I was born with this badass body and proud of it).”
