Despite the global success of Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, parenting in their household comes with the same humbling moments faced by families everywhere.
The couple’s eldest daughter, Olympia, has developed a reputation for delivering candid assessments of her parents, most recently taking aim at her father’s physique in a way that sparked both laughter and motivation.
Around the New Year, Ohanian shared an Instagram Story revealing that an offhand comment from eight-year-old Olympia pushed him back into the gym.
“Olympia said my arms were ‘small’ yesterday, so I woke up this morning and told elevated performance coaching we need to get to 19,” Ohanian wrote, suggesting her blunt critique was enough to reignite his training routine.
Olympia’s brutal view on her father
It was hardly an isolated incident. In December 2025, the Reddit co-founder posted a video from a bookstore outing with his two daughters that showed just how quick-witted – and unfiltered – his eldest can be.
While browsing, Olympia spotted a magazine featuring a Labubu doll on the cover. Ohanian, seizing the opportunity for a playful plug, tried steering her toward the business section, where a magazine featuring him sat on display.
“Don’t you want to look at some of these business books down here?” Ohanian asked. The response was immediate. “No,” Olympia replied. When he pressed further, she added, “Yeah, I know, I see you.”
Undeterred, Ohanian tried once more, only for his daughter to shut it down completely. “No! Yeah, I know it’s you. I want this,” she said, pointing back to the Labubu magazine.
Eventually conceding defeat, Ohanian turned to his younger daughter, Adira River Ohanian, affectionately known as Didi. “Didi, look,” he said, pointing at the magazine with his face on it.
The toddler grabbed a copy and exclaimed, “It’s Papa!” Smiling, Ohanian responded, “Good job, Didi. Thank you for humoring your father,” before she promptly dropped it on the floor. He later captioned the post: “That firstborn sure keeps ya humble [emojis] love you girls.”
A grounded family despite global fame
The dynamic offers a glimpse into a family that remains refreshingly grounded. Williams and Ohanian first met by chance in May 2015 over breakfast in Rome, seated next to one another.
Their relationship grew quickly, with Paris serving as the backdrop for their first official date. The couple welcomed Olympia in 2017, married later that year in November, and expanded their family again in August 2023 with the birth of Adira River.
Beyond humor and humility, Williams and Ohanian are intentional about how they prepare their daughters for the future.
Ohanian has been outspoken about encouraging Olympia to engage with artificial intelligence, viewing it as a tool for creativity rather than a replacement for fundamentals.
“I wholeheartedly want Olympia using it every day. I genuinely am so awed by the fact that super intelligence will be a commodity for her,” Ohanian said on the podcast Possible.
He added, “It was just so wild to see her reaction to it. Olympia still draws the old-fashioned way with markers on paper, but now, they can ‘level up’ that art together using AI. The pair can ‘make it fly through space.'”
“I want her to understand that this is a superpower that she should have,” he continued. “But I want her to know that the raw intelligence part has been solved for her. Now, it’s going to be about her agency and her grit and her creativity.”
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