Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have thrown an adventure-themed gender reveal party to unveil the sex of their unborn baby.
The couple, who announced that they were expecting their second child in May, shared a video on the tennis star’s YouTube channel documenting the “baby shower slash gender reveal” event.
Williams, 41, began the video by explaining she is “team pink” and wore a pink and white striped skirt and a white T-shirt. However, she added: “I’m a little nervous because I don’t have a contingency plan if it turns out to be a boy.”
The video then showed a rainbow balloon arch with a sign that read “Our Next Great Adventure”, with other balloon bunches attached to the top of poles dotted around the grounds of the event.
In one shot, Williams and Ohanian admire the balloon arch and put their arms around one another, while Ohanian plants a kiss on his wife’s forehead.
Then, they pose in front of another sign with their five-year-old daughter Olympia. The brightly coloured sign featuring a graphic of the young girl’s silhouette and the words “Olympia’s Splash Village”.
Throughout the day of the party, attendants enjoyed plenty of fun activities and dancing, before the big reveal took place in the form of a cake-cutting ceremony. However, there was a twist – the cake actually contained neither pink nor blue filling, but yellow.
Ohanian explained he chose a “basic” cake to “troll” Williams and Olympia, adding: “She will cut into this cake, probably be disappointed, and hopefully appreciate my troll. But we’ll see. I don’t know if she’ll be a professional about it. She might see this cake come out, roll her eyes and say, ‘This guy had one job and he gave me a goddamn cake gender reveal’. There’s a reveal after the reveal.”
After Williams cut into the decoy cake and discovered it was yellow inside, she jokingly attempted to squash a slice onto Ohanian’s face. While Ohanian is speaking on a microphone to introduce the actual reveal, Olympia grabs it and told him not to lie “ever again”.
“Papa’s always honest with you, I never lie to you, that was a little bit of a prank… You caught me” he admitted. Then he led Williams out onto the grounds to look up at the sky, where he had arranged for a drone display to create the actual gender reveal.
The drones built up the suspense, before revealing that the couple are expecting another girl. Ohanian, Williams, and their guests can all be seen cheering at the finale, and the couple kiss one another while Olympia bounces excitedly in Ohanian’s arms.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner announced her pregnancy at the Met Gala, which she attended alongside Ohanian. She showcased her bump in a black long-sleeves dress, with a deep neckline and a white fluffy skirt.
In an Instagram post, she wrote: “Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the three of us to the Met Gala.”
Last year, Williams revealed she would retire from professional tennis to focus on growing her family.
Writing in US Vogue, she said that her daughter often expressed that she wanted to be a big sister and she felt it was “a moment [she] needed to listen very carefully to”.
But she wrote frankly about how it wasn’t an easy decision to retire, adding: ““Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family.
“I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family.”
Williams and Ohanian have been married since 2017. They wed in New Orleans, with famous friends including Beyonce, Anna Wintour, Kim Kardashian and more in attendance.
