Tennis great Serena Williams gets candid about weight loss and GLP-1s

Tennis great Serena Williams has opened up about her incredible weight-loss journey, revealing that she lost 31 pounds with the help of a GLP-1 medication. 

The 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed in interviews with People magazine and “Today” that she turned to a GLP-1 medication after struggling with her health following the birth of her second daughter.  

“In particular after having my second kid, I was never able to be at a healthy weight that I could be at, whether it was my joints or blood sugar levels. It was just always something I suffered with and a lot of women actually go through this,” Williams said during an appearance on “Today” Thursday. 

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Williams, 43, said that despite being a trained athlete, she struggled to lose weight regardless of how active she was. She said it began to take a toll on her joints. 

“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.”

Williams said she decided to be open about her journey in order to destigmatize the use of GLP-1 medication for weight loss.  

Serena Williams is seen on Aug. 21, 2025 in New York City.   (XNY/Star Max/GC Images)

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“A misconception is that it’s a shortcut,” she told “Today.” “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.”

Williams told People magazine separately that despite her new look, her confidence level has never wavered. Her decision to make a change was based on something entirely different. 

“I’ve never felt that pressure to maintain a certain appearance,” she said. “I always felt comfortable at any size, whether I was a lot heavier or not. I do feel like my body didn’t like me at that weight. I had pain in my joints and pain in different areas just because of the extra weight that I’m not used to carrying since I had children.”

Serena Williams clenches her fist after defeating Qiang Wang, of China, during the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Sept. 3, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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“But the size I was before, there was nothing wrong with it. It’s just not what I wanted to have. I just knew that I wanted to be where I personally felt comfortable.”

GLP-1s, also known as GLP-1 agonists, are a type of drug that mimics a natural hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 that helps to regulate blood sugar levels.

Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed to this report. 

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