It’s Fashion season and Serena Williams is out and about, hitting the hottest locations and biggest fashion events around the world.
The retired tennis star, 43, is in New York, where she attended a SKIMS event that premiered the promo film showcasing Nike’s collaboration with her friend Kim Kardashian’s brand. But it is what happened behind the scenes that had people shocked.
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the mother of two shared two Instagram videos of what she discovered when she went into the hallway of the hotel she was at. Williams expressed her grief with a hotel that chose to use cotton for table decorations despite its historical context.
“Hi everyone, how do we feel about cotton as decoration? Personally, for me, it doesn’t feel great,” she said in the first clip.
In the second video, she took a piece of the cotton to feel it, stating, “So actually, it feels like nail polish remover cotton. Natural.”
Still taken aback, Williams looked down before she walked away from the camera’s view. But the damage was brutal once her videos began circulating online, as she faced both praise and criticism due to her personal life.
“Why the hell you gonna pick it for?” one person asked, while another suggested, “She should ask her white husband!?!?”
Her husband is white as cotton 😂 pic.twitter.com/sQUtP7Ekw3
— Ben Q (@MaritimeChem) September 26, 2025
A third said, “Girl you procreated with a [white] man whom you married. You shouldn’t feel nothing.”
In contrast, putting Williams’ experience into perspective, one vocal critic said, “Not y’all ignoring the message because of the messenger. She has a point. Why is this decor?”
It’s unclear exactly what hotel she was at, but her husband, Alexis Ohanian, was not in the video and he did not accompany her to the SKIMS event. Williams and the Redditt Co-founder have been married since 2017 and share two daughters, Olympia and Adira.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have long been under the microscope, with fans debating who really funds their lavish lifestyle and questioning Serena’s choice to date a white man. Through it all, the pair remain unapologetic, proudly owning their love life while the public keeps trying to read between the lines.
Earlier this week, Williams also made headlines for her head-turning appearance during Milan Fashion Week. She styled her blond hair into a loose high bun with long pieces of hair curled to softly frame her face for the premiere of Gucci’s short film “The Tiger” on Sept. 23.
Williams shared two separate posts of her wearing a semi-sheer black gown with feather accents. The first carousel caption read, “Only playing the cards I was dealt,” and featured three images of her facing the camera, while the second upload was titled, “There I go, showing my hand again,” giving fans a close up look at her backside.
The comment section of both posts was littered with fire and heart eye emojis from followers who adored her look. “She is gorgeous. The lips, the face, the body is bodying,” gushed one supporter. An even more stunned fan declared that Williams’ beauty “snatched my breath away.”
Others were flabbergasted by the superstar athlete’s dwindling waist and slimmer curves that now appear “too tiny.” The Wimbledon champion has lost more than 30 pounds with the help of a weight loss medication in addition to hitting the gym and training on a tennis court, which includes a noticeable downsizing of her muscle mass and signature curves.
Williams revealed that her post-baby transformation after welcoming daughter Adira in 2023 got a major boost from a GLP-1 shot provided by telehealth company Ro.
Now, some say she’s crossing the line into extreme transformation territory. “Wow Is this Serena? She looks so different now. Hope she’s doing well?” asked a seemingly concerned follower.
A fourth individual alluded to outside factors contributing to the way Williams views her own body. That person wrote, “Who the hell making Serena? Feel she need to be better when she already the bomb.”
The Nike ambassador first opened up about her weight loss journey in January 2024, using her ability to squeeze back into an fitted denim skirt as proof of progress. By August, she admitted to turning to the GLP-1 shortcut after diet and exercise stopped delivering results.
