All Serena Williams ever does is take care of her family and dominate the tennis court, but now, the 23-time Grand Slam champion is clapping back at people on the internet who are making some crazy accusations against her.
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Williams took to Instagram Live to address claims that she’s been bleaching her skin. While going through her makeup routine on Monday (Dec. 2), Williams said, “No, for you haters out there, I do not bleach my skin.”
Her response comes right after a video of Williams at her daughter’s school event shook up the internet. In the now viral video, Williams is sitting next to her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and the couple is seemingly having a good time supporting their daughter. But for many online, Williams’ skin was the real topic of discussion.
X user @Dee_184 asked “What happened to her?” Another user, @pun_rivers, wrote “she was a dark skinned black woman. Now? I dont know wtf is going on.”
Williams rebutted on Live saying “there is a thing called sunlight, and in that sunlight you get different colors.” The pro-athlete went on to point out how she was wearing “stage makeup” while volunteering to help kids backstage at the school event.
If you don’t know anything about the beauty world, stage makeup is quite literally the opposite of everyday makeup. Stage makeup is dramatic, bold, and not at all meant to look natural... But even with Williams trying to explain herself, many still weren’t buying it.
@user3823479231054 said on TikTok Williams “is lightening her skin. Maybe not bleaching but she is doing something.” They continued with “Everyone black knows that sunlight doesn’t make us lighter. It makes us darker.”
“As my grandmother would say Bless your heart,” wrote @user6672455480213. Despite all the “haters—” as Williams calls them— she says she doesn’t hate her skin or want to change it. “I am a dark Black woman, and I love who I am, and I love how I look,” Williams said on Instagram.
She continued saying she doesn’t judge anyone who chooses to skin bleach. “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 said.
“But that’s what this world is about, and I stay in my lane — the non-judgy one, and I keep it. But no, I actually don’t bleach my skin, so can we just kinda clear that up?” she concluded.
Despite the internet drawing “ridiculous” similarities between Williams and Sammy Sosa, the Dominican baseball player who notoriously bleached his dark skin, and the comedy film “White Chicks,” Williams is unfazed. On Live, she casually moved on from the skin bleaching topic and finished her makeup routine.
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