Serena Williams Hits Back at 'Ridiculous' Skin Bleaching Speculation

Serena Williams has a message for her haters.

The 23-time tennis grand slam champion, 43, clapped back at recent social media speculation over whether she had lightened her skin. Williams sparked chatter last week after sharing a video of herself at a school event for her and husband Alexis Ohanian’s daughter, Olympia, 7. (The couple also share daughter Adira, 15 months.)

During an Instagram Live video on Monday, December 2, Williams shared her makeup routine with fans and called out the gossip.

“Usually, I go back for a third time and then I put just that neutral color that is actually my skin color. And no, for you haters out there, I do not bleach my skin,” Williams said as she applied under-eye makeup.

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She added, “There is a thing called sunlight and in that sunlight, you get different colors.”

Williams said that she was wearing “stage makeup” in the video that ignited the speculation, explaining that she was volunteering at Olympia’s school play.

“Yes, I’m calling you out on this because it is ridiculous that everyone’s like, ‘Oh, she bleaches skin.’ I’m a dark Black woman, and I love who I am, and I love how I look,” Williams said.

“That’s just not my thing, and if people do it, that’s their thing and they have every opportunity and they should … I don’t judge, but you guys do,” she continued. “That’s what this world is about and I stay in my lane, the non-judgy one and I keep it. But, no, actually, I don’t bleach my skin. So, can we just kinda clear that up?”

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As well as clearing up speculation about her skin color, Williams is also supporting her husband through a recent health scare. Ohanian, 41, shared last week that he had surgery on his thyroid to prevent cancer.

“After tracking some suspicious nodules on my thyroid for the last 4 years, I recently got half of it surgically removed,” Ohanian captioned an Instagram post on Thursday, November 28. “The nodules were getting bigger & the latest biopsy revealed they’d very likely turn cancerous.”

Ohanian shared that his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was his age, and ultimately died from brain cancer “a decade or so later.”

“I hate cancer,” he continued. “I wasn’t gonna take any chances.”