Venus and Serena Williams’ father Richard is one of the most popular figures in tennis history, a rare achievement considering he never played the sport at the highest level.
When Serena Williams’ father Richard opened up about his controversy-courting attitude (Source: Getty)
The American, however, served as the coach to both his daughters during their childhood days before entrusting their care to coach extraordinaire Rick Macci.
Even after he stepped out of the coaching situation, Richard Williams became a force unto himself with his presence in the Williams’ box.
On more than one occasion, he became the center of controversy with his unprovoked comments, either about his daughters or their opponents or other players on tour.
At various junctures, Williams Sr. has gotten into a war of words with Martina Hingis, with Martina Navratilova, has called out fans at Indian Wells for racism and even got involved with Will Smith and Kevin Hart when the latter slapped Hart at the 2022 Oscars for controversial comments about his wife.
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But by Richard’s own admission, all of the controversy that has come his way has been manufactured of his own volition. Speaking in an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1999, Venus & Serena Williams’ father admitted as much, stating that he prefered to make people think he was ‘stupid’ by his nonchalant comments.
“Most people don’t know nothing about me ’cause when I’m talking I always talk like I’m stupid. I prefer people to think I’m stupid,” Richard Williams said.
As for why, Richard Williams emphasized that he wanted to build a church bigger than anything the United States has ever seen, for which he believed he would need major media. Therefore, Williams reasoned that the best way to get the attention of the media was to be at the center of controversy, even if it meant he got bashed every now and then.
“My plan is so huge, I don’t even know if I can do it. My plan would be to take a small church and make that church bigger than any church in the U.S. To do all that, you have to have the involvement of a school and a lot of peoples involved. You have to have major media,” Richard Williams said.
“I love to have the media bash me. You know why? You do something good and save someone’s life, no one cares. You want to be famous? Get you some bad news,” he added.
“Richard and I had ups and downs over a lot of things, but he’s always been an incredible father” – Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rick Macci
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In the interview with Sports Illustrated, Rick Macci also shared his thoughts on Richard Williams’ personality. Macci admitted that while he and Richard did not always have a smooth relationship, he had always been an ‘incredible’ father to Venus and Serena Williams.
Macci hailed Williams for putting his daughters’ educations before financial gain, recalling instances where stopped them from practicing tennis in order to focus on their studies.
“Richard and I had ups and downs over a lot of things, but he’s always been an incredible father to those two girls. If he’d wanted more money, he could’ve had them playing more. But I can remember 50 times when he called off practice because Venus’s grades were down. They’d be in my office studying French, and I’d be saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to work,'” Rick Macci said.
Williams, now 82, resides in Atlanta now under his son’s care.
