Serena counts the cost of success on family, especially her children
Tennis icon Serena Williams has revealed to PEOPLE magazine why success is “costly”
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion shared the sacrifices she’s made, such as spending time away from her family
“You have to decide if it's worth it for you,” says the tennis legend. If you want to be the boss, you have to pay the cost.
“Yeah, it costs a lot,” explains the tennis legend and WYN Beauty creator. “I'm here [in California] without my kids, and that’s a big cost for me because I spend a lot of time with my children, and they’re very attached to me, which a part of me loves. So, it’s always some cost.”
Williams added that the greatest costs of her athletic career and overarching success weren’t even financial. “My whole life I’ve had to kind of weigh, like, ‘If I wanna win a championship, well what is that going to cost me?’ ” Williams says. “It's going to cost me time with my family, it's going to cost me friends, it's going to cost me relationships. And they were very expensive. You have to decide if it's worth it for you.
The Compton-raised multi-hyphenate, who lives in Florida with her family, was at the event to celebrate the first anniversary of WYN Beauty, which she founded and launched in April 2024.
While Williams has excelled in nearly every arena she’s entered — both on and off the court — she reveals that she has no plans to take on another large business venture.
“I'm done!” Williams says with a chuckle. “I'm not launching anything else like this. I am just happy doing WYN Beauty. I'm happy being a mom, and I'm happy with my venture company, and that's a lot. We're good!”
When asked how founding WYN Beauty has influenced the way she talks to her daughters about beauty, Williams emphasized inner beauty.
“It's super important for me to share that beauty is definitely on the inside,” Williams tells PEOPLE. “And then anything externally is just an enhancement of who you are. So our beauty and what we do at WYN Beauty enhances your inside beauty.”
The activation also featured interactive moments for fans and influencers, including games, swatching stations and a tennis-themed photo booth.
As for Williams’s athletic success, she turned pro in 1995 and spent the next 27 years dominating the tennis world before retiring in 2022.
Williams earned 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most for any woman in the Open Era of the sport. She also clinched 14 Grand Slam doubles titles alongside her pioneering sister Venus Williams and notched 327 Grand Slam match wins, another Open Era record.
