Tennis icon Serena Williams has opened up about her experience with GLP-1s, revealing that the weight-loss treatment has transformed her health in ways she wishes had been available during her competitive career.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion made the disclosure during a conversation on Oprah Winfrey’s podcast, explaining that despite her elite athletic background, she struggled to manage her weight after becoming a mother to two daughters.
“My last match at the Open, I literally was working eight hours a day in the gym, training and I never could lose an ounce. In fact, I feel like I may have even gained weight,” Williams shared. “And it was incredible how my body looked even though I was putting in hours and I’m talking we’re in the summer in Florida putting in hours and hours and hours of training.”
The 44-year-old athlete described how her body seemed to stop responding to the rigorous exercise and dietary discipline that had defined her professional life. Despite being one of the most accomplished athletes in history, Williams found herself unable to achieve the physical changes she sought through traditional methods alone.
“I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried every diet. I’ve tried every workout. I’ve tried walking for hours. I would go to Europe and Paris and I would just walk for hours and the 20,000 steps a day like every single thing, and nothing was working,” she explained.
Williams initially resisted it, viewing them as incompatible with her identity as an athlete who had always done things the hard way.
“It’s like the skinny shot and like it’s a shortcut. And so for a long time I didn’t do it and I didn’t want to do it. And I thought like I’m not going to take the shortcut. I’m going to work harder,” Williams recalled.
However, after exhausting conventional approaches, she reconsidered her perspective. The turning point came when she learned about the biological mechanisms behind weight regulation, particularly the concept of a set point.
“I would lose the weight, but my body liked to be at a certain weight and that was so eye-opening for me. I was like, I feel like I didn’t know that. Whenever I lose weight, it’s like all of a sudden I’ll get even hungrier and my body wants to go back to the other weight,” Williams said.
Since beginning treatment, Williams has reported significant health improvements. In August 2025, she announced she had lost 31 pounds and partnered with telehealth company Ro to share her journey publicly.
More recent reports indicate she has now lost 34 pounds in total, with her cholesterol decreasing by 30% and her lifetime risk of heart disease dropping by a relative 70%.
The results weren’t immediate, Williams emphasized, encouraging others to be patient with the process.
“I didn’t lose weight instantly. It took me a month or two for me,” Williams said. “And I don’t know if anyone else had that experience, but a couple of my friends are like, ‘Oh, I’ve been on it for a month and I’ve only lost like three pounds.’ I’m like, ‘That’s okay. I actually probably lost one pound.'”
Beyond the numbers on the scale, Williams has noticed improvements that she believes would have enhanced her athletic performance.
“My life, I feel happier. I mean, I feel like I have more energy for my kids. I just feel like I can do more. I love to dance. I can drop it. I got knees like Megan now,” she said. “It affects my joints. My joints are so much lighter and so much better and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, I just wish I had done this while I was still playing.’ Like it would have made such a big difference for me in my career.”
Williams has been forthright about her regret that GLP-1s weren’t available or understood during her competitive years. “It feels free. I always say I wish they had this when I was on tour. I would’ve been really amazing,” she noted, adding, “I just feel like I’m at my healthiest. And that’s not something I could say even when I was a professional athlete.”
The tennis legend has reframed her understanding of these, no longer viewing them as taking the easy way out but rather as addressing a medical condition.
“I’ve never taken a shortcut in my life. In fact, I would go the longer way to make sure I was the best, to make sure I did the extra work, to make sure I did the most. And that’s why it took me a little bit to want to start on the GLP-1 because I thought, well, is this a shortcut? And it really wasn’t. It’s just if anything, it’s just a shortcut to better health. And that’s just the way to look at it,” Williams explained.
She has become an advocate for changing public perception around weight management and GLP-1, emphasizing that this is about treating a biological condition rather than a failure of willpower.
“We have to change how you look at it and change the conversation. This is why this conversation is so important,” Williams said. “It’s about having these types of conversations and educating people that this is a disease. Now treat it.”
Williams believes her biology fundamentally changed after childbirth, making her previous approaches to weight management less effective. “I think it’s biology and I think also when you have kids maybe that biology changes,” she reflected.
By sharing her experience, Williams hopes to reduce the stigma surrounding these and help others understand they represent legitimate medical treatment rather than a character flaw or lack of discipline.
