Serena Williams Just Revealed If She Still Has ‘Negative Feelings’ Toward Ex Drake After She Seemingly Dissed Him at the Super Bowl
We’re a few months removed from the drama that was the Super Bowl Halftime Show, but in many ways, it feels like it was just yesterday that Kendrick Lamar was dissing Drake on the big stage, Serena Williams cameo included. Williams, widely regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time, appeared for a brief moment, just dancing, but it was enough to make a splash.
The reason? It just so happens that Serena Williams and Drake used to date. So people took the fact that Williams appeared on the same stage as Lamar sang his song “Not Like Us,” a diss track about Drake, which won him five Grammys, as a diss to Drake from Williams. The other Lamar guest on stage, SZA, also dated Drake, which added to the assumption that they were all in it together.
But now, Williams is setting the record straight about if she was dissing him. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that […] Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him,” the tennis superstar reportedly said to Time.
Related: Serena Williams’ Net Worth Reveals How Much She Made From Tennis Before Her Retirement
Williams didn’t say anything one way or another at the time, but she had joked about the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef during the 2024 ESPY Awards in July of last year, saying, “If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar. He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re going to Forrest Gump him. Seats taken.”
Not exactly taking sides, but not a defense of Drake either. And when she went from that to appearing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, assumptions were obvious. Especially considering her husband, Alexis Ohanian, reacted to the Halftime Show by saying, “Pretty fantastic halftime show,” and posting pictures on Instagram. It’s like saying the quiet part out loud, and we’re all pretty good at listening.
At least Williams admitted she could see why people thought that. Because honestly, it was all pointing towards that conclusion. But if she’s over whatever happened with Drake, all the better for her. “Serena briefly dated Drake around 2011, and even though it didn’t end that well, they have remained friends since,” an insider told Page Six in August 2024. But that rang a little hollow at the time, considering that yes, Drake and Williams didn’t have any personal beef, but Drake did take some shots at Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian.
In the 2022 song, “Middle of The Ocean,” he rapped “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie/He claim we don’t got a problem but/No, boo, it is, like you comin’ for sushi/We might pop up on ’em at will like Suzuki.”
Ohanian responded in a tweet, saying, “It’s cliche, but life changed when I became a husband + papa. It’s made me 100x better as a man and a businessman. The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do — including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter.”
But if Williams says there are no negative feelings, then maybe she’s just the bigger person.
