"Just typing, deleting, thinking, then crying; tears streaming down my face as I'm writing & going back on memories" - Serena Williams reveals the emotions she went through while writing her retirement article
Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis in an article for Vogue magazine earlier this month. During a recent podcast with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, she laid bare the emotions going through her mind while writing the article.
In that article, the American stated that she would call it a day after this year's US Open, which is scheduled to begin on 29 August.
Speaking on the Archetypes podcast, Williams touched upon the emotional rollercoaster she went on as she penned her retirement announcement.
"Yeah. It wasn't very easy. Like, I remember I was in … randomly, I was in Switzerland and I was just sitting in the hotel at the desk, just typing and deleting and typing and thinking and then crying and sitting at my computer and tears streaming down my face as I'm writing these words and going back on these memories," Serena Williams said.
"And it was just like, God, it was, it was really hard. Um. I mean, but I was like, if I'm going to do this, it has to be Vogue September issue, right?" she added.
"We're tied at the hip, I'm like, that's my best friend" - Serena Williams on daughter Olympia
During the podcast, Meghan Markle noted that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour must have been pleased that Williams picked her magazine to publish her magnum opus.
Williams revealed that Wintour was indeed pleased by the fact and was "super supportive" while also keeping the entire news under wraps.
"It doesn't get, it doesn't get better than that. So, yeah, Anna was really grateful and super supportive and kept it secret, too, because it was like we did that photoshoot a while ago," she said.
Williams and Markle then switched their attention to the former's daughter Olympia, with the 23-time Major champion calling the latter her "best friend."
"You know, I gotta always have Olympia in there. We're tied at the hip. I'm like, that's my best friend," she stated.
Speaking about her love for her daughter, Serena Williams revealed that an injury suffered by Olympia during the 2018 French Open had scared the living daylight out of her, due to which she only got 30 minutes of sleep before a match.
"She fell out of her high chair and broke her wrist. And she was on my watch. And I was just basically devastated. Like, I literally couldn't think. I felt so guilty," she said, adding, "We went to the hospital and she had a small tear, a break in her wrist, so she had to get a cast and we didn't get back ‘til like four in the morning."
"I remember holding her the whole night and just like rocking her to sleep and I just didn't let her out of my sight at that point because I was already and I'm hard on myself, and I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. But I was so mad at myself for even allowing that to happen" she stated.