Serena Williams has been taking a GLP-1 medication to help with her recent weight loss, she revealed for the first time in an exclusive TODAY interview.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion shared her decision to take a weight loss drug following the birth of her second daughter as part of her partnership with health care company Ro, for which she is a paid spokesperson.
She tells TODAY.com that she has lost 31 pounds since starting the medication about a year ago. She has not disclosed which kind.
“I was on and off (the medication) and now completely on,” she says. “It was a really good decision I had to make for my life, you know, I tried everything.”
“This all started after I had my (first) kid,” she continues. “As a woman, you go through different cycles in your life. … No matter what I did — running, walking, I would walk for hours because they say that’s good, I literally was playing a professional sport — and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different.”
She also tried being vegan and vegetarian, she adds.
Since starting the medication, she says she’s already seen and felt her health improve. At a recent doctor’s visit, she was told her blood sugar levels have improved, and she says her joints feel “lighter.”
“I had a lot of knee issues … especially after I had my kid (and) was never able to get to my normal levels of weight. And that, quite frankly, definitely had an effect on maybe some wins that I could have had in my career,” Williams recalls.
She hasn’t struggled with any side effects, either she says. “I put my body through a lot. … I understand that there are lots of side effects, I just didn’t have any,” she says.
Reflecting on her health goals when starting a GLP-1, she also points out that African Americans have an increased risk of diabetes. “(It’s) definitely around in my family, and I really wanted to just look deeper,” she explains.
Williams’ hope for the multiyear campaign is to normalize use of GLP-1 medications for weight loss and help others live healthier lives, according to a press release.
“A misconception is that it’s a shortcut,” she says. “As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place — and believe me, I don’t take shortcuts.”
Still, she battled the stigma around taking a medication to lose weight. “I definitely had struggles because, I mean, I believed it too. … But with Ro, I could easily just ask all the questions, and … I didn’t have to worry about it, and not have to feel like someone was looking at me sideways.”
Asked if she sees herself staying on the medication long-term, she says yes. “I feel like, after having my kids, my body was missing something. I don’t know if it’s something that the GLP-1 has, but I just feel normal again.”
Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, are parents to two daughters, Olympia, 7, and Adira, 2. (Ohanian is an investor in Ro and serves on its board.)
GLP-1 drugs, also known as GLP-1 agonists, work by mimicking a hormone that the body produces after eating. This leads to reduced appetite, feeling full more quickly and slowed stomach emptying. In addition to facilitating weight loss, these medications are also approved to treat diabetes because they trigger the release of insulin by the pancreas.
GLP-1 medications are usually prescribed for either obesity or diabetes, and lifestyle changes, such as to exercise and diet, are usually recommended to patients as well.