“Zero mental health,” Serena Williams slams media for saying ‘awful things’ which affected her when she started playing

During an Instagram live session, Serena Williams recalls struggling with mental health problems due to the media's accusations.

“Zero mental health,” Serena Williams slams media for saying ‘awful things’ which affected her when she started playing

Serena Williams (Image via X)

Even Serena Williams, with 23 Grand Slam singles trophies is prone to mental health issues. Though the discussion around mental health has increased over the years, it wasn’t the case when Williams started playing.

During an Instagram live session, the 43-year-old recalled how the media used to accuse her of cheating. Williams once even blamed doping authorities for singling her out for random drug testing.

YouTube video

When I was growing up, it wasn’t necessarily the public, it was actually the press that did awful things that ‘Serena cheats, ‘Serena uses all kinds of stuff that other people aren’t using.’ People that just get caught all the time and you know I never did this stuff but it was a really different world.

Serena Williams said

Williams never tested positive for a banned substance in her career. But despite that, often more than her victory, media and social media’s focus used to be on her muscular body as they claimed Williams’ incredible achievements were due to her having a built like a man.

FS Video

Talk about mental health, there was zero mental health when I first started. But I love that we have that now – we can protect our women, we can protect our girls.

Serena Williams added
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Stefanos Tsitsipas surprises Serena Williams on Instagram

Stefanos Tsitsipas joined Serena Williams when the tennis legend started her Instagram live session to talk about her beauty grand WYN Beauty. At one point during the session, Williams talked about playing against Tsitsipas and beating him and the Greek player said it was the ‘only time’ in his life ‘that he got aced by a WTA player’. Tsitsipas also talked about using WYN Beauty products.

Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Image via Imago)

Here’s the video:

Williams had praised Tsitsipas when the 26-year-old reached his second Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in 2023. She dropped seven clapping emoticons under a post by Tsitsipas. The two-time major finalist however couldn’t win the trophy as he lost the final to Novak Djokovic.

While Williams’s attention is split between spending time with her two daughters, Olympia and Adira River, and managing her businesses, Tsitsipas had a lackluster season in 2024. He won just the Monte-Carlo Masters and failed to make it beyond the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam tournament.

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Also for the first time since 2019, he ended his season below the top 10. His last match was against Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal of the Paris Masters.