Venus Williams Opened Up About How She Feels About Retiring Now After Sister Serena Almost 'Ruined' It

For anyone reading this, let’s get a few things straight: Venus and Serena Williams may be sisters, but they have different careers, different lives, and –as what might come as a surprise for some– different ages too!

According to Venus in a new interview, she admitted that the world seeing her and her sister as the same, as twins, almost got in the way of her own tennis aspirations.

“Sometimes they even think we’re twins,” Venus said of her sister, who was born 15 months after her. “If you guys did think so, we are two separate people, born on different days.”

“As that moment [I retire] gets closer, Serena ruined it for me,” Venus joked. “Because as soon as she retired, everybody thought I retired.”

As a reminder, Serena retired from the sport back in September 2022 in an interview with Vogue. “I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me,” the 23-time Grand Slam winner said at the time. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.” Of course, Serena and her husband Alexis Ohanian are now proud parents to Olympia, 6, and Adira, 1.

Venus, on the other hand, has kept going, with no retirement date yet in sight.

“I always thought that I would be just crying when I had to retire because it’s all you know and you spend your whole life programming your mind to do that every single day,” she explained. “It’s the first thing you think about when you wake up, the first thing when you go to bed. You dream about it.”

With time, however, Venus knows that saying goodbye to the courts won’t be as heartbreaking as she once thought. “Now I realize that I won’t cry because I’ve definitely given everything to this sport,” the 7-time Grand Slam winner said. “I think more than anything, I’ll be grateful. I think that will be the feeling.”

Prior to the interview, Venus told Irish News that her recent years have been more conducive to a healthier work-life balance too.

“At this point, it’s about picking and choosing places I want to be,” she told the outlet. “Last year I really wanted to play in Miami – home – because I hadn’t played there in like five years. It’s nice to be in a place where I can pick and choose, but my game is always at a high level. Even if I’m not on tour, I always keep my game quite high.” We love to see it!

Before you go, click here to see celebrities who are best friends with their siblings.