Tech entrepreneur and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian opened up about a moment of unexpected disagreement with his wife, tennis legend Serena Williams.
While Ohanian has become one of the most vocal champions of women’s sports, he recently shared that his wife initially urged him not to invest in women’s soccer, citing deep-rooted concerns about the sport’s lack of infrastructure.
Serena Williams’ Husband Alexis Ohanian Has a Net Worth of $150 Million
Ohanian, who has long advocated for gender equality in sports, recently acquired a 10% stake in Chelsea FC Women for approximately £20 million ($26.5 million). The deal, finalized last week, places the club’s valuation north of £200 million ($265 million) and gives Ohanian a seat on the team’s board.
But despite Ohanian’s optimism, he revealed to CNN that the path wasn’t always so clear-cut, even in his own home. His wife Serena Williams, having battled systemic barriers throughout her illustrious career, initially tried to dissuade him from investing in women’s soccer, citing the deeply rooted lack of infrastructure in the space.
“Serena actually tried to talk me out of it, because I think she had been so exposed to the infrastructure around women’s sports,” Ohanian said. “Because of her lived experience … Because she had to kick down a lot of doors.”
View this post on Instagram
Despite his wife’s early skepticism, Ohanian forged ahead, driven by a vision for what women’s sports could become. He emphasized that many previous efforts to support women’s athletics had been hampered by misguided motivations.
“I think a lot of well-intentioned people historically have supported women’s sports in a way that … actually held it back because it was viewed too much as charity,” he said, adding, “They led with things like, ‘Oh, I’m doing this because I have a daughter.’”
“I’m glad the discourse has now shifted … but there’s still so much more work to be done, and I really believe that this club could and should be the first billion-dollar club in women’s sports.”
Ohanian’s recent investment in Chelsea FC Women is the latest chapter in a growing legacy of support for women’s sports. He was an early backer of Angel City FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, which reached a record $250 million valuation before its 2024 sale.
He also founded Athlos, a groundbreaking track meet for women in New York City, and made headlines with a $1 million donation to the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball program, his alma mater, designed to empower female athletes.
Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian Opens Up About Why Women’s Sports Remain Underfunded
During the Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi in March, Serena Williams‘ husband, Alexis Ohanian, called the lack of investment in women’s sports a moral and business failure, noting female athletes must overachieve while male-led leadership often thrives despite mistakes.
“If you spend any time with these professional athletes, what you know is that they don’t have the privilege of being mediocre. The great irony, as we look back on the legacy of underinvestment in women’s sports, is it won’t just be sexism and racism, because that was there too. It’ll also be just gross business negligence. And the women who played these sports for decades didn’t have that privilege,” Serena Williams’ husband said.
“You’re playing a zero-sum game in sports. Box score shows up at the end of every match. And if you don’t do a good job, you gotta find something else to do. And again, the sad part is, we’ll be able to look at the receipts, but you had predominantly men in positions of power in these leagues, across these things, who could get away with being mediocre for decades. And the ones who actually suffered were the athletes,” he added.