Serena Williams shocked fans with her new, slim selfie. Here’s her secret
No shame in her game.
Serena Williams is coming clean about how she lost a dramatic amount of weight.
Fans were shocked the other day by Williams’ Instagram selfie, dressed in a tummy baring crop top and Grecian skirt, looking like a real life “Incredible Shrinking Woman,” 2025 edition.
Some commenters on her post didn’t even recognize her. Some thought she was ill. Others assumed she was on a trendy weight loss drug like the rest of Hollywood.
Ding, ding, ding! The tennis champion did indeed use a GLP-1 to achieve that svelte body.
Originally developed for type 2 diabetes, meds such as semaglutide (e.g., Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) work by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1, which is released in our gut when we eat, and makes us feel full. Long story short: the magic shot makes you forget about food for a while.
Williams is totally owning it, too.
“I feel really good and healthy,” she told People magazine in a new interview. “I feel light physically and light mentally.”
The Palm Beach Gardens resident explained her rationale for going the non-natural route. Despite how much she worked out and dieted, the scale didn’t budge the way it used to, pre-kids.
First daughter Olympia (with husband Alexis Ohanian) was born in September 2017; Adira came along six years later (the tot just turned 2).
In late 2024, Williams had literally enough of carrying around those extra pounds. To get motivated, she launched an online “denim skirt challenge,” determined to fit into a cute Valentino creation she acquired before becoming a mom.
Thanks to grinding at the gym and making the right choices with food, the 43-year-old champ saw major gains (as in losses), but still had a ways to go.
“I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained,” she told the outlet. “It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard.””
When she finally came to terms with the fact she needed medical intervention, Williams did her homework. The California native became a spokesperson for direct-to-patient online pharmacy Ro to find the right treatment plan, which turned out to be Zepbound.
“I did a lot of research on it. I was like, ‘Is this a shortcut? What are the benefits? What are not the benefits?’ I really wanted to dive into it before I just did it.”
Not only does Williams have no regrets after shedding 31 pounds, she wants to help others who may be hesitant to jump on the bandwagon themselves.
“GLP-1 helped me enhance everything that I was already doing — eating healthy and working out, whether it was as a professional athlete at the top level of tennis or just going to the gym every day,” she said of her ongoing weekly injections. “So I think that it’s important for everyone to hear my story... I feel like there’s a lot of people that can relate.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 4:31 PM.
