Venus just accidentally revealed the sex of Serena Williams' baby

'She is going to call me favourite aunt'

Serena Williams' baby
(Image credit: Rex)

'She is going to call me favourite aunt'

It was announced in April that Serena Williams and fiancé Alexis Ohanian were expecting a baby, with the Women's tennis number one seed posting a photo of her 20-week bump to Snapchat.

Since announcing the news, the couple have remained pretty tight lipped about the pregnancy, and as with all celebrity babies, speculation has been building as to whether the 35-year-old tennis champion is expecting a girl or a boy.

Despite previously insisting that they were keeping the sex of their baby ‘a surprise’, it looks like the news is finally out there, with Serena’s sister Venus Williams actually being the one to spill the beans.

The 36-year-old tennis champion let the news slip during a post-match interview at the French Open yesterday after beating Kurumi Nara.

Serena Williams' baby

‘She is going to call me favourite aunt,’ Venus joked to a Eurosport presenter, going on to explain how she and their other sisters, Isha and Lyndrea, each want the future baby to take their name.

‘We’re all like, baby V, baby Isha, baby Lyn,’ she explained. ‘We all want the baby to be named after us.’

Accidentally breaking news seems to be a recurring theme with the Williams sisters, with Serena actually announcing that she was pregnant back in April by accident.

Explaining the accidental announcement in a TED Talk with Gayle King, Serena explained, ‘It was an accident. I was on vacation just taking some time for myself and I have this thing where I've been checking my status and taking pictures every week to see how far along I'm going. I didn't tell a lot of people to be quite honest and I'd been saving it. And you know how social media is when you press the wrong button...and...’

She continued: ‘My phone doesn't ring that much, and thirty minute later I missed like four calls and I'm like, “that's weird,” and then I picked it up and I was like “oh no,” But it was a good moment. I was just going to wait literally just five or six more days so that's okay.’

We hope she's just as relaxed about the latest accidental announcement!

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.