Serena Williams is making it clear that she is not lightening her skin. The tennis star has been accused by fans online that she is using products to appear lighter.
“For all the haters out there, I do not bleach my skin,” she said via Instagram Live on Monday, Dec. 2. “There’s something called sunlight and in different lighting, you get different shades.”
She told fans that she loves who she is and decided to speak out because she wanted to clear up the rumors.
“I’m a dark, Black woman, and I love who I am, and I love how I look, and that’s just not my thing,” Williams said. “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 continued. “But that’s what this world is about and I stay in my lane, the non-judgy one. But no, I actually don’t bleach my skin, so can we just kinda clear that up?”
Serena Williams Shares New Hobby
While Williams is clearing up rumors, the 23-time Grand Slam champion is off to putting fitness at the forefront of her life again.
“I’ve gotten obsessed, more obsessed with diet and exercise, I think, than when I was playing tennis,” Williams tells PEOPLE. “I knew that I was going to burn 20,000 calories a day, and now I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I don’t know how many calories I’m going to be able to burn!’”
Williams announced her retirement from tennis after 26 years, she still has new goals she wants to hit.
“Look at me,” Williams tells the publication. “I’m trying to compete — not compete, rephrase — trying to do a half-marathon. That’s my new goal. So it’s just like I have to do something competitive. I miss tennis like crazy.”
She continues, “But as a woman, I had to make different choices that I probably wouldn’t have had to make if I were a guy, but that’s okay, I love that. I love that I chose my family and I want to be around them every single day of my life. And I try to do that, and I just figure I want to be the GOAT at something else. And for me, that’s being a mom right now.”
Williams shares two daughters — Alexis “Olympia” and Adira — with her husband Alexis Ohanian.
