Serena Williams Calls Out Paris Restaurant for ‘Denying Access’ to Her and Her Children
Serena Williams is slamming a luxury Parisian restaurant for refusing service.
“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places … but never with my kids,” Williams, who has 23 Grand Slam women’s singles titles to her name, took to X to vent on August 5.
“Always a first,” she added, with a hashtag for the Olympics.
“You should claim racism and get someone fired,” one person responded. Another wrote, “It doesn’t matter how much money you have. Racism doesn’t care bro 🤣.”
Williams shares two daughters with her husband Alexis Ohanian, an American tech entrepreneur and investor. She previously posted an open letter on Reddit, discussing the challenges of raising a Black girl in a world that’s not prepared to affirm her.
This time, however, there may not be an undertone of racism. Despite what the empty tables suggest, the restaurant appears to have been fully booked.
“Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved,” they wrote, addressing the four-time Olympic gold medalist. “We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris,” they shared in a subsequent post.
A staffer at the rooftop establishment echoed this to Variety. Though she was not at work on the day Williams visited the restaurant, she claims it was an honest mistake.
“When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” she said. “My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”
The retired tennis champion arrived at the French Capital with her family in late July, ahead of this year’s Olympics.
She was a torch-bearer alongside other famous athletes, including football legend Zinedine Zidane, judoka Teddy Riner, nine-time medallist Carl Lewis, tennis player Rafael Nadal, and track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec.
Williams has been spotted watching the match between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who is statistically the greatest tennis player in history, and Carlos Alcaraz, a Spanish player who has four Grand Slam Titles under his belt. We’re glad to see her poor experience with the hotel did not affect her enjoyment of the games!
