Serena Williams has announced she is engaged to the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian.
The multiple Grand Slams winner announced the engagement in a poem on a Reddit thread for people to share their engagement stories.
She said in the poem, posted from her verified Reddit account, that Ohanian proposed at the place they first met during a surprise trip to Rome.
Williams wrote: “I came home/A little late/Someone had a bag packed for me/And a carriage waited. Destination: Rome/To escort me to my very own ‘charming/Back to where our stars first collided/And now it was full circle/At the same table we first met by chance/But by choice/ Down on knee/He said 4 words/And I said yes.”
The couple have been dating since at least late 2015, but has kept their relationship quiet, with the exception of a few Instagram posts.
Four weeks ago, Williams posted a photo of the couple at a costume party. Within minutes of the engagement announcement, comments on the photo were dominated with congratulatory messages and emojis.
Alexis Ohanian has a net worth of $4.5m, a far cry from Serena’s $160m. His personal motto is “making the world suck less” and he’s invested in more than 200 small businesses, each of which he vets personally to ensure they chime with his creedo.
Alexis is also the author of the bestselling 2013 book Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed, which looks at how Reddit was formed and includes his belief that the internet can be harnessed for good.
He’s been included twice on Forbes’ influential 30 Under 30 list – once when he was 28 for being the CEO of Breadpig, and again the following year for his Reddit work.
