Serena Williams Says She Accidentally Announced Her Pregnancy on Snapchat

“On social media, you press the wrong button and … 30 minutes later I missed four calls,” the tennis champion says

Serena Williams and Gayle King
Ryan Lash / TED

It turns out Snapchat is just for Millennials …

After the world celebrated Serena Williams’ pregnancy announcement last week, the 23 Grand Slam singles titles-holder admitted that she hadn’t intended to share the good news just yet, but committed a social media faux pas.

“Well, actually it was an accident. I was on vacation just taking some time for myself and I have this thing where I’ve been checking my status and taking pictures every week to see how far along I’m going,” Williams, 35, said at the 2017 Ted Talks conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Canada Tuesday night.

“I didn’t tell a lot of people to be quite honest and I’d been saving it. On social media, you press the wrong button and … 30 minutes later I missed four calls and I’m like, ‘That’s weird.’ But it was a good moment. I was only going to wait five or six more days [to share],” she told mediator Gayle King.

Williams — who is engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian — went on to say that she was “nervous” when she first found out she was pregnant in January.

“I wasn’t sure what to do. Can I play? I know it’s very dangerous in the first 12 weeks or so, so I had a lot of questions,” she told King. “I knew that at that moment, it was important for me to just focus.

“I had to take all that energy and put it in a paper bag and throw it away. I really felt like I didn’t have time to deal with any extra emotions — any extra anything.

“Pregnant or not, no one knew,” Williams continued. “Every tournament where I show up, I’m expected to win. If I don’t win, it’s actually bigger news.”

The tennis phenomena, who tied the record set by Steffi Graf earlier this year, said she intends to return to the sport once she is a mom.

“Roger Federer is older than me and he’s still winning everything,” she said. “My baby’s going to be in the stands, hopefully cheering for me.”

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