"I didn't leave Olympia until she was 6 for 24 hours" - Serena Williams shares 'extreme' levels of motherhood with two daughters

Once the most dominant force on the WTA, Serena Williams now prioritises her family, specifically her two daughters Olympia and Adira. The 23-time Grand Slam champion joined Michelle Obama on for a special live taping of IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson where she discussed motherhood with the former first lady.

Williams had her first daughter in September 2017. Famously, she won the Australian Open at the start of the year while eight weeks pregnant. It was an incredible feat which cemented her legacy as one of the best. She would make a return to the sport shortly afterwards and continued to compete at the highest level until her retirement in 2022.

Her second daughter came in August 2023, a year after her hanging up her racket. Both were with husband Alexis Ohanian.

Williams unveiled that everything she does these days are based around her kids. "I really try to be a present parent," Williams began. "And sometimes that's hard, especially with the lives that we live; it's very hard to be present, but I try to be extremely present."

This is taken to a very extreme measure. Despite her busy lifestyle even when she was playing, Williams rarely leaves her daughters for more than 24 hours. This trend was kept with Olympia for the first six years of her life.

"I'm never gone more than 24 hours, ever," she commented. "I didn't leave Olympia until she was 6 for 24 hours. That may have been a little extreme, but that's who I am.

"And so for me, I show up as much as I can every single day for the girls. Because I feel like they mean the most to me, and I feel they need me, and they need to make sure, I wanna raise my children. I'm a person that's raising my kids, and that's teaching them how I want them to live and how I want them to be."

Compared to her sister, Venus, she never had a step-by-step plan for being a mother. “Venus is a planner,” Serena laughed. “She writes everything down.

“Obviously, I have spiritual goals for the kids. I have, you know, ideas for education goals. I have those types of things, but I never really thought much about it. I don’t have a philosophy,” she explained. “My philosophy is just to be the best that I can be to show up.”

Williams had a very famous relationship with her parents, especially her father who coached her and Venus in their early tennis days, moulding into the champions that they have become. "I felt like I love my parents and how they raised us," she said. "And just kind of pick and choose out of some of the things that they raised us with, in particular with my mum."

Her overall motivation is to be by her kids as they grow up, shaping them into the people she wants them to be. “I’m a person who’s raising my kids,” she said. “Teaching them how I want them to live and how I want them to be.”

Recently, Williams shared a number of photos on her Instagram page. While she tries to keep her kids away from the spotlight, they were front and centre with their parents in the opening slides of the gallery.

She captioned the post: "I don’t share these moments often, but being their mom is my favourite place to be," Williams wrote in her caption. "I’m with them 363 out of 365 days a year — and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This weekend was everything."