Mum-to-be Serena Williams wishes her child can play in a sport that has uniform pay and rights and hopes she is brave enough to raise her voice
Serena Williams
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American tennis great Serena Williams, who is expecting her first child in September with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, wants her daughter to play a sport that has equal pay and rights.
Serena, along with her sister Venus, have been successful in their fight to narrow the gender pay gap in tennis.
"If my daughter were to play in a sport and she was able to have equal pay and equal rights, that would be a success. If not, I would want her to speak up for it," Williams said yesterday during an episode of Kneading Dough, a new series by Chase and digital media company Uninterrupted.
Williams is the only woman to land herself on Forbes' 2017 list of The World's 100 Highest Paid Athletes. But money, according to her, was never a motivator. "I just played for the love of the sport. I've never played for money. Not once did I think about a cheque," she added.
"Since I was a teenager, I've made every financial decision in my life and I've had to learn how to make good ones," she said. When Williams received her first big pay cheque of $1 million a few years ago, she said she simply deposited it into her account.
"I didn't touch it. I should have taken a picture of it, but selfies didn't exist back then," she said.