Meet Serena Williams’ handsome multimillionaire husband, Alexis Ohanian

Alexis was born in Brooklyn, NYC, on April 24, 1983, before his family later moved to Washington, D.C., where he graduated from Howard High School in 2001. He developed an interest in technology and earned degrees in history and commerce from the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005.

“I went to high school in Ellicott City, Maryland, and I felt pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. It just took time away from my doing things on the internet…. In school, I was just a kid. Online, I had authority,” he recalled in 2012.

It was during his freshman year of university that he met Steve Huffman, with whom he co-founded Reddit in 2005. It took the pair three weeks to build the platform, and 16 months later, they reportedly sold the company to Condé Nast for an estimated $10 to $20 million.

He remained on the company’s board of directors and reportedly still retains an estimated 5% stake.

Alexis is reportedly worth $150 million and built his fortune largely from Reddit and as an investor. He currently serves as the Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. He is also the founding control owner of Angel City FC, and penned the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed. 

Alexis met Serena at the Rome Cavalieri hotel in Italy in May 2015. Serena was staying with friends at the hotel while she was playing in the Italian Open, and Alexis was at the same location to speak at the Festival of Media Global conference.

The couple first met at breakfast, Serena explained during a Vanity Fair cover interview in 2017. And at first, the 23 Grand Slam-winning player was unimpressed by her future husband’s presence. “This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?'”

Serena and her group of friends tried to get Alexis to move away from them by suggesting a rat had been seen near his table. But, after he questioned whether the group was telling the truth and got a conversation going, the centre-court star ended up inviting him to sit with them instead.

This chance meeting eventually led to the pair exchanging numbers, and later that same month, they met up again for a weekend in Paris while Serena was playing in the French Open.

Alexis popped the question in December 2016, proposing to Serena at the exact same table where they first met in Rome. The sportswoman later announced how she had accepted her partner’s proposal by posting a sweet poem on the Reddit thread “I said yes.”

Alexis and Serena married in November 2017 in New Orleans at the Contemporary Art Centre. The beautiful bride wore an Alexander McQueen gown for the lavish ceremony, which was a “French Ball” theme inspired by Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Celebrity guests present at the wedding included Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, and several tennis stars. 

The couple shares two daughters, Alexia Olympia Ohanian Jr., eight, and Adira River Ohanian, two.

Serena announced her first pregnancy via Snapchat, showing off her blossoming baby bump at 20 weeks. The sportswoman found out she was expecting before competing in the 2017 Australian Open, which she later won.

Alexis announced the birth of their eldest child via Instagram in September 2017, writing: “Welcome, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr., we’re so happy to meet you … Our little girl is already mama’s perfect sidekick.”

Serena revealed her second pregnancy while attending the Met Gala with her husband in May 2023. The star shared a stunning snap from the event and captioned the post: “Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the 3 of us to the Met Gala.”

Alexis once again announced the birth of the couple’s child with a sweet Instagram tribute. He wrote: “I’m grateful to report our house is teaming with love: a happy & healthy newborn girl and happy & healthy mama. Feeling grateful. @serenawilliams you’ve now given me another incomparable gift — you’re the GMOAT. I’ll never forget the moment I introduced @olympiaohanian to her baby sister.”

Before meeting Serena, Alexis had never watched a tennis game in his life (neither in person nor on TV), but he quickly became his wife’s biggest supporter both on and off the court.

“You have to show up. You have to be supportive. These are the things that matter,” he wrote in an essay for Glamour in 2019. “I try to be the most supportive partner I can be and to have conversations with her about her career goals and what she can do to reach them.”

He added: “I’m far from perfect, but I try to get behind her and let her know I’m there for her and our daughter, no matter what.”