Serena Williams has set the record straight on suggestions that she was throwing shade at Drake when she Crip Walked during Kendrick Lamar‘s Super Bowl halftime show.
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While speaking with Time, the tennis legend insisted her inclusion in the performance wasn’t meant as a diss to Drake.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that. I respect how they could. Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”
Williams said joining the performance was about paying homage to her hometown, Compton, California, where Lamar is also from.
“Who would have thought that a tennis player from Compton would be regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time?” she said. “It was just putting an exclamation on it.”
“I don’t know if I regret it or not,” she said of her decision to perform. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
Drake and Serena reportedly dated on and off from 2011 to 2015, during which time the rapper would attend her matches.
In 2022, Drake name-dropped Serena on the Her Loss track “Middle of the Ocean” and referenced her husband, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian.
“I swear you don’t even mean what y’all say like y’all dubbin’ a movie/Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie,” Drake raps on the song.
