Serena Williams won the Australian Open while she was 2 months pregnant
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The INSIDER Summary: Serena Williams was pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January. She learned about her pregnancy just days before she played. A new Vanity Fair article details how it all went down. In January, Serena Williams won the woman's title at the Australian Open – for the seventh time. And as if that wasn't a huge accomplishment already, we learned later that Serena won the title while eight weeks pregnant.
A new Vanity Fair article dives into how Williams found out she was pregnant just days before she was set to play at the Australian Open — and how she made the decision to go ahead with the tournament.
Williams never thought she could possibly be pregnant and treated her friend's suggestion to take a pregnancy test as a joke.
"I’ll take it just because, A, to prove you wrong and, B, because it’s fun, whatever," Williams told the magazine of her reaction to taking the test. "It’s like a joke. Why not?"
Things turned out differently than she expected. Williams revealed her pregnancy in April.
Here's how it happened:
While practicing in Melbourne, Williams noticed that something felt off.
"She had unexpectedly thrown up at one point and her breasts had enlarged," Vanity Fair writer Buzz Bissinger wrote.
Her friend Jessica Steindorff, a Hollywood talent agent, suspected Williams was pregnant, but "Serena thought it was ludicrous."
It took two days for Steindorff to convince Williams to take a test.
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She took the pregnancy test while preparing for a marketing event for a line of sports bras. She took it, and then went to finish her makeup.
"An hour-and-a-half later, I went back to the bathroom and I totally forgot about it because it was impossible for me," she said. "So I went back to get dressed and I went back in the bathroom and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that test.’"
Williams was shocked at the result.
"Oh my God, this can’t be — I’ve got to play a tournament," she said. "How am I going to play the Australian Open? I had planned on winning Wimbledon this year."
Williams refused to believe it, so Steindorff ran out and bought five more pregnancy tests. All five were positive.
Once she was certain she was pregnant, Williams called Ohanian and asked him to come to Melbourne. When he arrived, she "handed him a paper bag with the six positive pregnancy tests" without a word.
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Only five other people knew about Williams's pregnancy. One of them was the doctor she called in to examine her. Williams still wanted to play at Melbourne, but she had to make sure it would be safe.
The doctor thought she was three or four weeks pregnant, and that there was "no risk whatsoever" in her playing, according to Vanity Fair.
But when Williams returned to the United States, another exam revealed that she had actually been "about seven to eight weeks" pregnant at the time. Williams said "she still would have played."
Williams won the tournament without losing a single set and people went nuts on social media when they found out later that she did so while she was pregnant.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/854720173877731328
Serena Williams was pregnant when she won the Australia Open in Jan. but I cant even get out of bed when I'm on my period. Sis is superwoman
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/854778060037476353
Serena Williams has reached a whole new level of Superhuman, The 8 Wonder Of The World.
Won Australia Open while pregnant...thats Legendary
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/855071714299871233
Serena Williams won the Australia Open Tournament while being pregnant so basically she's the ultimate human
After the Australian Open, Williams took a leave from the game. She plans to return to playing tennis in January.
The Vanity Fair article also goes into the sprawling backstory of Williams's relationship with fiance Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder, and how it resulted in her unexpected pregnancy.The article also has great photos of Williams during her pregnancy.
Read the full Vanity Fair article here.
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