"We had just met, that would have been really weird"- When Serena Williams joked about designing her luxury home without husband Alexis Ohanian's help
Serena Williams once joked about not asking her husband, Alexis Ohanian, for help in designing her luxury home. The house in question is the waterfront estate in North Miami, located just minutes away from her sister Venus and their parents' houses.
Williams has a net worth of $340M, according to Forbes. Having been the highest-paid female athlete in the world multiple times, it's no surprise that she owns several properties. These include a co-owned property with Venus in the BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, a luxurious property in Beverly Hills, and a pied-à-terre in Manhattan, New York.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion purchased her waterfront estate in 2017 for $5.7 million. At the time, the 6,770-square-foot property featured six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. With the help of her sister’s design firm, V Starr, the siblings reimagined the space and transformed it into an ultramodern retreat.
During an interview with the Architectural Digest magazine in 2021, Serena Williams said:
"I was moving away from Venus for the first time in my life, so I wanted it to be really meaningful. You have to know your lane. I’m really good at playing tennis; I’m not as good at interiors. But I was able to learn through just watching Venus."
The American then shared that it would have been really "weird" to ask Ohanian for help with the interiors since they had only just met.
"We had just met. And I wasn’t going to be like, ‘Hey, let’s do this together.’ That would have been really weird for him."
Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian helped decorate their elder daughter Olympia's room
Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, contributed to the house's design by decorating their elder daughter Olympia's bedroom. He created a custom-made pink castle bed, complete with a built-in slide, and added a unique chandelier crafted by glass artist Josh Fradis.
"She goes down the slide every night while we’re thinking, Man, we shouldn’t have done that, because now at bedtime, she just wants to slide. But whatever makes her happy makes me happy," Serena Williams told Architectural Digest.
Williams and Ohanian have been married for eight years, with Olympia also being eight. The power couple welcomed their second daughter, Adira River, in August of last year, and now enjoy life as a happy, fun-loving family.