Serena Williams is facing further backlash over her ‘cotton plant’ complaints – after fans discovered a similar item inside her own home.
The tennis legend stirred up controversy earlier this week by expressing her discomfort over a cotton plant in her New York hotel room, saying it “doesn’t feel great.”
Her remarks left fans split; some accused her of overreacting, while others felt her response was appropriate due to the plant’s association with the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Amid ongoing discussion about the incident, fans have now uncovered a photo showing a sculpture that includes cotton, which is placed in her own home.
In 2020, Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, posted a picture of the ‘Monument for a Promise’—a piece depicting a donkey carrying a trunk and standing over a pile of cotton.
Although it was her husband who posted the photo, Williams had also commented on the special space within her home that she designed to highlight the art piece.
Tennis legend Serena Williams is facing backlash over her ‘cotton plant’ controversy
Williams was put-off by a cotton plant in the hallway of a New York City hotel
However, fans unearthed an old picture – posted by her husband – of a sculpture featuring a ‘mound of cotton’ inside their own home
In an interview with Architectural Digest, she discussed the foyer in her home, which she had designed, that proudly displayed the ‘Monument of Promise.’
‘When you walk in, it’s like walking into an art gallery,’ Williams said. ‘That’s my favorite part of the house. It’s so unique. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
After the picture and the quotes reemerged on social media, the US tennis icon came under from fans but her husband, Ohanian, quickly jumped to her defense.
He wrote on X: ‘Folks entitled to have their opinions, but to use owning Radcliffe Bailey’s Monument for a Promise as some kind of a ‘gotchya’ is so breathtakingly stupid – there is some very obvious symbolism of the cotton in the artwork’.
Williams first sparked the drama on Thursday after she recorded herself walk down the hallway and spotted a table with a vase of cotton plants.
Williams said in the video, which was posted to her Instagram story: ‘How do we feel about cotton as decoration? Personally, for me, it doesn’t feel great.’
She then picked one of the balls off the plant and rubbed it around her fingers before shuddering and putting it back down.
Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, jumped to her defense via a post on social media
Meanwhile, the backlash comes just weeks after Williams announced she shed 31lbs in eight months by taking the trendy GLP-1 agonist drug Zepbound, which she obtained through her new role as investor/ambassador of the telehealth company Ro.
‘I feel like a lot of people have this stigma on GLP-1s and say things like, “Oh, lazy people do it,” or “if you’re working hard enough, you don’t need that,”‘ Williams told Vogue.
‘I know for a fact from my experience that it’s simply not true. Sometimes you need help. Your story is your story, and it’s okay to make that choice to do it if you want to. I did, and I’m really happy with it.’
The four-time Olympic gold medalist added: ‘I was putting in the work. I actually think it’s a problem a lot of other women can relate to, that you are in the gym and eating healthy, but just can’t get to the level you want or need to.
‘I feel lighter mentally, I feel sexier, I feel more confident.’
