Venus Williams On Co-Hosting The Met, Building Her Legacy, and Defying Expectations at 45

Reported by Vogue.

Venus Williams is 45, still competing, and absolutely not retiring. At a casual tiki bar near her Jupiter, Florida home—plastic chairs, Jimmy Buffett, seafood baskets—she orders a veggie burger and speaks with the kind of composed poker face that's been honed over 32 years of professional tennis. "I get a lot of joy out of being different or unexpected or bucking the system," she tells me. "I find that thrilling."

Unlike her sister Serena, who stepped away from the sport in 2022, Venus has never even whispered the word retirement. After a two-year hiatus to treat adenomyosis—a debilitating uterine condition that caused excessive bleeding and anemia for years—she returned to competition last year and reached the US Open doubles quarterfinals with 23-year-old Leylah Fernandez. The seven-time Grand Slam champion is currently the oldest competitor on the women's tour, and she's training like hell: three hours on court daily with coach Diego Ayala. The difference now is that she's doing it without pain. "I feel great," she says simply, though she acknowledges the uncertainty. "Hopefully the fibroids don't grow back."

The Sister Legacy Nobody Talks About

Venus's career has always lived in Serena's shadow, a fact that stings less than you'd think. The two played each other 31 times—nine in Grand Slam finals, which Serena won seven of—and the emotional toll was real. "I didn't want to play her," Venus says, laughing with a breeziness that suggests she's made peace with it. "I was hoping someone else would take her out." Serena, by contrast, calls it "a nightmare" and "the most difficult thing in my career." The sisters faced endless speculation and commentary about their matches, including insinuations from John McEnroe that their father predetermined outcomes. When Venus withdrew from a 2001 Indian Wells semifinal due to injury, the crowd turned vicious, booing both sisters and their father. Richard Williams reported hearing racial epithets. The family boycotted the tournament for 14 years.

But doubles? That was pure magic. Venus and Serena won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals together—a partnership they stumbled into when their father simply assigned them sides of the court one day and they never switched. "It was magical, but it was also once in a lifetime," Serena says. Today, Serena is in her "mom era," focused on her two daughters and the podcast she co-hosts with Venus called Stockton Street. Meanwhile, Venus recently married Italian-Danish restaurateur Andrea Preti after meeting him at a Gucci runway show in Milan, and she's settled near her family in Florida, prioritizing time with aging parents over the hypothetical kids she froze eggs to have. "I'm playing," she reminds me. "So it would be very inconvenient."

At 45, Venus Williams isn't planning her exit—she's reclaiming her entrance on her own terms.

Read the original at Vogue.