Serena Williams insists her Super Bowl appearance wasn’t meant to be shade against Drake.
In a new interview with Time’s Sean Gregory, the tennis icon addressed the controversy following her surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance of “Not Like Us.”
“Absolutely not,” Williams told Time when asked if she was throwing shade at her ex. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that. I respect how they could. Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”
Williams and Drake were rumored to be romantically involved as far back as 2011 and were seen making out by TMZ years later. He even showed up to her U.S. Open match against Roberta Vinci that September. Some fans blamed him for Williams losing that day.
The moment, which saw Williams crip walking for mere seconds, instantly made headlines and inspired widespread reactions, including over 100 complaints with the FCC, with at least one viewer supposedly accusing her of gang affiliations.
At the time, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith offered his own take on the matter on his talk show First Take, saying, "If I'm married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass. Cause clearly you don't belong with me. What you worried about him for and you're with me? Bye-bye.”
“I thought it was hilarious,” Williams said of Smith’s reaction. “He’s allowed to have his personal opinion. But did you see my husband’s remark? It was so eloquent.”
Further into the interview, Williams insisted she and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, have their sights elsewhere.
“And I'm like, dude, like, we literally are investing in the world, both of us,” said Williams of Ohanian, who has a stake in Angel City FC and founded an all women’s track event last year. “We’re investing in women and in sports. This is literally the last thing on our minds. Come on.”
Williams also revealed that Lamar, who also grew up in Compton, reached out weeks before the game asking her to dance.
“I'm like, ‘Wait, what, you're asking me?’” Williams recalled. “I'm not Taylor Swift, let's be honest. I would have a better chance to be quarterback at the Super Bowl than dance.”
“Who would have thought that a tennis player from Compton would be regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time?” she said. “It was just putting an exclamation on it.”