Serena Williams hasn’t posted too many pictures of her daughter Adira since she was born last August, which is why her latest photo is making us swoon. The retired tennis champion shared a sweet moment with her newest daughter on a boat, and the baby looks like she’s getting so big!
In the picture on Instagram, Williams holds baby Adira in one arm as she poses in a white bikini on a boat. Adira is dressed in khaki shorts and a teal t-shirt, as she looks out at the beautiful ocean beyond. Her head is full of dark curls that look just like her mama’s. Even though we can’t see her face, Adira looks adorable
The 23-time Grand Slam champion got refreshingly real about postpartum self-esteem and body confidence in her caption. “Loving yourself is essential,” Williams wrote. “I find that I have to remind myself of that self-love through all different stages in my life. Right now I love that my body is not picture perfect. I love that I smell like milk — that milk sustains @adiraohanian I love getting to know a new version of my body.”
“It is a change, but it’s a change that has been well worth it,” she continued. “So start this week, knowing that you are loved, and that starts with you. OK, now I’m about to go to the gym 🤪.”
Others praised the way her body looks. “Serena — what if your body IS picture perfect?? You are smoking hot then and now!” one person commented. Someone else wrote, “Oh my god I stopped at your picture because you look amazing!!! I didn’t read until after. Your body is still awesome strong 💪🏽.”
“Beautiful mama, strong woman, forever and always GOAT ❤,” another wrote.
This isn’t the first time Williams has kept it real about her postpartum body. Last month, she shared a video of a “cool Valentino skirt” she got when she was pregnant with Adira.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to be able to fit this when I don’t have a belly,’” Williams says in the video, before admitting, “I can’t fit it.” She tries on the long denim skirt, which gets stuck just under her butt. “Houston, we’ve got a problem,” she jokingly says, adding that her “goal” is to fit in it.
People commented, telling her that she is beautiful the way she is. “This hurts my soul … there’s nothing wrong with you. F*ck the skirt!” one person wrote.
“Houston disregard … that ain’t no problem 😍😮💨,” another person commented.
After Williams had her firstborn daughter Olympia, now 6, she spent 8 months training to get ready to return to Wimbledon. “I’m feeling pretty good about my body,” she told Allure in Jan. 2019. “I worked hard at it in the past eight months to get back from the baby. It hasn’t been easy. I’m not 21 anymore. But I did it slow and steady.” Williams added, “After I came out [of the hospital], I had a stomach, but I thought, This is kind of cool. I have a stomach because the baby was there.”
She also shared the advice she would give to her daughter about beauty: “When I tell her she’s beautiful, I want to teach her that she’s beautiful from the inside,” Williams told the outlet. “Giving is beauty. Being kind and humble is the ultimate beauty.”
It seems like she is working hard right now to remember that for herself right now, and it’s such a beautiful reminder.
