Serena Williams Lays Bare the One Reason It’s So ‘Difficult’ to Leave Daughters Olympia & Adira

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Serena Williams at the 2025 Baby2Baby Gala on November 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images

You don’t get to GOAT status — or 23 Grand Slam championships — without having a little discipline, and it turns out Serena Williams uses that same mindset in parenting. The retired tennis pro just shared the one reason it’s so “difficult” to leave her daughters Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2, who she shares with husband Alexis Ohanian, for work, and it’s inspirational.

In an interview with PEOPLE at the Baby2Baby Gala on Saturday, Williams revealed, “Well, tonight was definitely a little more difficult. I don’t like to leave my kids.”

The reason why? Their strict bedtime ritual. “I have a nighttime routine with them every day,” she revealed.

Serena Williams at the 2025 Baby2Baby Gala on November 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.Michael Buckner/Variety

Talk about being a parenting pro! Nighttime routines are so beneficial for kids (and grown-ups), as quality sleep improves happiness, alertness, cognitive performance, resilience, learning, and other things. So the fact that Williams doesn’t play around when it comes to her daughters’ bedtime routine doesn’t surprise us.

It’s the same type of focus and determination that made her good at tennis. In a previous interview with CNBC, the Olympian said, “Tennis is [played] every day, you have to do it every day. You have to train, and business is the same. It is exactly the same. You have to be very disciplined. You also have to be determined through ups and downs, be determined to keep going.”

It’s clear she brings this same focus into parenting, and she’s just as proud of her mothering as she is of her career. “I’m a wonderful mom,” Williams said in an April interview as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. “I think we, as women, don’t give ourselves credit, but I’m a great mom. I really am. I do everything. I’m freaking the room mom at Olympia’s school this year.”

Yes, Mama! Praising her own fantastic abilities, sticking to parenting rules like they are training regimes, and being an all-around kind, caring mom is why we love Williams so much. We know her girls are going to be alright (even if they do stay up too late every now and then).

Before you go, check out these fun facts about Serena Williams’ daughter Olympia.

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