Serena Williams gave her mother, Oracene Price, credit for supporting the family while she and her sister, tennis champion Venus Williams, trained with their father, Richard Williams.
Venus, Serena and their sisters Isha and Lyndrea Price appeared on the Nov. 17 episode of Red Table Talk with their mom, Oracene Price.
Will Smith also appeared on the episode to talk with the ladies. Smith plays Richard Williams in the biopic about the family in the new film King Richard.
Celebrities such as Naomi Campbell, Coco Gauff, Karlie Kloss and Novak Djokovic also appeared on the Red Table Talk episode. Serena noted why she and Venus decided to be executive producers of the film during the episode.
“Well, you know, it’s a complicated story to tell. And as you know, my dad is such a, I always say he’s before his time, down to just marketing and even just to put us in a sport that was completely a white sport, and then to say that we were gonna be the best at it. It was something that no one had ever done before. So, and you know Hollywood can be, you know, they can get it right or they can get it wrong sometimes. So we were a little bit nervous.”
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Serena credited her mother, Oracene Price, for supporting the family while her father quit his job to coach their girls into tennis champions.
She told PEOPLE magazine that Price supported her five children, herself and her husband after Williams left his job to coach his daughters full-time.
“My dad at one point was working and then, he stopped,” she recalled. “He’s like, ‘This is what we’re going to do. I’m not going to have a job. I’m gonna go with Venus and Serena, and train them every day.’ Now that would be impossible for me if my husband were to tell me that.”
The sisters also had an elder sibling, Yetunde Price, who passed away in 2003.
Price wasn’t only the breadwinner. She was also her daughters’ coach along with her husband and instrumental in their success. She spoke about coaching her daughters’ techniques and paying attention to their mental health back in 2019 with Today.
“During a match, I’m watching their techniques, mostly,” said Price. “But before the game, I’m watching them mentally. And I see a lot of people go out there, not mentally there, but it is so important, cause you have to believe that you can do something before you do it.”
The Red Table Talk episode is currently available on Facebook
