Serena Williams explained that freezing her eggs in her 20s brought her peace of mind to pursue her tennis career fully.
"And then all of a sudden, all this pressure came off of my shoulders," the tennis icon remarked.
Williams gave birth to her first child with husband Alexis Ohanian when she was 35.

Serena Williams, now 44, stands by her decision to freeze her eggs during her 20s.

In a candid conversation with Michelle Obama on the latest episode of the "IMO" podcast, taped live and released Wednesday, the tennis great opened up about her path to motherhood.

"I tell all my friends around that age, freeze your eggs. Because I just feel like that is the best thing that you can do as a woman, as you decide to go on this journey," Williams advised.

That choice, she noted, let her stay dedicated to her professional tennis without the urgency to start a family right away.

"I froze my eggs. And I felt like once I did it, because I was still playing professional tennis, and I felt I wasn't ready to stop, and I wanted to keep going, and it just wasn't time," Williams recalled. "And then all of a sudden, all this pressure came off of my shoulders. Like it was just, all this weight just fell off my shoulders once I did that."

Ever since, Williams has urged "everyone to do it."

"I was like 27, 28, so it was a really good time to do it. And also, someone told me to do it, so I always felt like it was really important for me to pay that forward," she explained.

Thanks to technological progress, Williams felt a sense of relief in having viable choices ahead.

She emphasized that openly discussing personal fertility stories can empower women to explore their possibilities.

"Even if you get married later, you can still use those eggs with your husband," she pointed out. "You just have so many more opportunities and options, and so, I don't know, for me, I was really happy that I did it."

Williams and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian welcomed daughter Olympia in September 2017, when Williams was 35. They wed later that year and had their second daughter, Adira, in 2023.

Williams shared that she lacks a rigid parenting style but holds firm views on nurturing her girls.

"As organized as I am in my life, like to a point where everything is labeled, my parenting skills are different," she admitted.

Her core method revolves around presence and giving her best as a mom. "Everything is around my kids," Williams stated.

"I want to raise my children. I'm a person that's raising my kids, and that's teaching them how I want them to live and how I want them to be," she continued.

Williams joins other stars who've addressed egg freezing publicly.

In November 2022, Jennifer Aniston expressed regret that no one pushed her to freeze her eggs earlier.

"I was throwing everything at it. I would've given anything if someone had said to me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.' You just don't think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed," Aniston reflected.

That same March 2023, Priyanka Chopra described a profound sense of "freedom" after freezing hers in her early 30s.

"I could continue on an ambitious warpath that I wanted to achieve. I wanted to get to a certain place in my career. And I also hadn't met the person I wanted to have children with or I didn't see that. That's anxiety-inducing," she noted.