'Was never able to lose...': Serena Williams' shocking confession on how she shed over 31 pounds after years of struggle

With 23 Grand Slam singles titles and four Olympic gold medals, Serena Williams is undeniably a superathlete. Serena Williams revealed Thursday she is taking weight loss medication after struggling to see results from diet and exercise following the births of her two daughters, Olympia and Adira. Opening up about her recent weight loss journey, Serena Williams said she lost more than 31 pounds with the help of a GLP-1 medication.

The tennis icon, known for her unmatched discipline and athleticism, shared that after giving birth to her daughters in 2017 and 2023, she found it difficult to shed postpartum weight—even with her commitment to healthy eating and consistent workouts.

Serena Williams on her weight loss journey

“As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place, and believe me I don’t take shortcuts. I do everything but shortcuts,” Williams said in an interview on "TODAY."


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“At one point my coach says, ‘You need to lose weight,’” Serena told Women’s Health. “I was eating extremely healthy and I was working out really hard because I know what it takes to be number-one. But I was never able to lose weight, and that was really frustrating for me.”

Now 43, Williams says she feels “light physically and mentally” for the first time in years. After Olympia was born in 2017, she said, she would run and walk for hours to try to lose weight.

“I literally was playing a professional sport, and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health, for my healthy weight, no matter what I did,” she said. “I would always lose a lot of weight, and then I would stay. No matter what I did, I couldn’t go lower than that one number.”

Moreover, there were other health considerations too, Williams said: Diabetes runs in her family, and African American adults have a higher risk of being diagnosed with it. She also hoped that losing weight would relieve pressure on her knees.

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“I had a lot of issues with my knees, especially after I had my kid,” she said. “That, quite frankly, definitely had an effect on maybe some wins that I could have had in my career.”

She also recalled a trip to Paris, in particular, during which she routinely walked 20,000 to 30,000 steps per day—partially because she loves strolling Paris (who doesn’t!?) and partially because she was trying to get fit. Yet, the scale number “would never go below where it needed to go,” she says.

Serena Williams' campaign with Ro

On Thursday, she launched a campaign with Ro, a company that prescribes GLP-1 medications through telehealth, to normalize the use of weight loss drugs and combat the narrative that taking them is the “easy way out.” Her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is an investor in Ro and serves on its board.

With the birth of her second child—daughter Adira in 2023—Serena initially lost weight quickly, but she once again plateaued. As a result of the extra weight, she was experiencing strain on her joints every time she ran down a ball. “In a sport like tennis, you’re putting hundreds of pounds of strain on your joints per movement, per time,” she says.

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That’s when Serena came to a realization, she says: “I have to try something different.” She started researching weight loss medications, but as she more seriously contemplated taking a GLP-1, she found herself hesitant due to the stigma surrounding the drugs—that they’re some kind of shortcut or cop out. As a top athlete, she felt the scrutiny would be extra intense.

“I am a very good use case of how you can do everything—eat healthy, work out to the point of even playing a professional sport and getting to the finals of Wimbledon and U.S. Opens—and still not be able to lose weight,” she says. “It’s not a shortcut. It’s not a copout. This is just another tool to support my health journey.”

Seven months into her fitness journey, Serena Williams says the transformation has gone far beyond the number on the scale. The 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed that her dedication in the gym is paying off, and she’s beginning to see the physical changes she has been working toward.

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Williams noted that shedding excess weight has eased the strain on her body, making her workouts more effective and less taxing. “My joints feel so much better now,” she explained, crediting the improvement despite the intense running she has been doing while preparing for an upcoming half-marathon. “I’m running longer distances than ever before.”

Her progress isn’t limited to stamina and endurance. Williams shared that her recent medical checkup brought encouraging results. “My doctor told me everything looks great, including my blood sugar levels,” she said, adding that her renewed fitness has boosted her overall health.