Allen Kee / ESPN Images(NEW YORK) — Just weeks after Serena Williams gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, she penned a note to her own mother, Oracene Price, praising her parenting skills.
Calling Price “one of the strongest women I know,” Williams thanked her mother for her constant support, especially when “haters” called Williams “a man” and accused her of using drugs.
Williams noted that her daughter has “my exact same strong, muscular, powerful, sensational arms and body,” and acknowledged that she’s not sure how she would react if Alexis one day faced criticism of her body from strangers like she has.
“Mom, I’m not sure how you did not go off on every single reporter, person, announcer and quite frankly, hater, who was too ignorant to understand the power of a black woman,” Williams wrote in a post that was published on Reddit. “I am proud we were able to show them what some women look like. We don’t all look the same. We are curvy, strong, muscular, tall, small, just to name a few, and all the same: we are women and proud!”
Williams, 35, and her fiancé, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, 34, welcomed baby Alexis on Sept. 1. In her note to her mother, Williams, the youngest of five children, asked for her mother’s help with raising her daughter.
“You are so classy, I only wish I could take your lead. I am trying, though, and God is not done with me yet. I have a LONG way to go, but thank you,” she wrote. “Thank you for being the role model I needed to endure all the hardships that I now regard as a challenges–ones that I enjoy. I hope to teach my baby Alexis Olympia the same, and have the same fortitude you have had.”
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