CNN interviewed Serena Williams when she was 9. Here’s what she said:
Serena Williams was asked in a recent interview how she feels about the constant scrutiny she’s faced this week.
Serena Williams speaks during the first day of the 2014 Coacher Summit in New York. John Moore / Getty Images
“There is a lot of attention on me all the time,” the 19-year-old Serena Williams said before the cameras Monday at a press conference for the 2014 Coacher Summit. “Like, a lot of attention. Like, I have to take care of my body and it’s really exhausting. My job is really hard.”
Interviewed by CNN’s Kailani Koenig on Monday morning, Williams also addressed criticism that she’s an “airhead,” an “emotional creature” who needs “to stay away from men.”
But the topic at hand, she said, is not always the need to stay away from men, but the fact that her body must be taken care of.
“Obviously, the [body] I have is different than one person has,” she said. “I feel like it’s a matter of my body and how I am living my life and how I’m taking care of my body…. I feel like I got to take care of myself and I’m not the type of person that needs to be with a lot of man. I just feel like my body is like, when I’m not going out, that it’s just not the same anymore. It’s like, I feel like sometimes I got to be with that other person.
“It’s all about [the] right mindset… It’s like, when I get home, I get home, I get on my computer, I do something on my computer, I go to sleep, I get up, I do it, I go to sleep. Like, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just don’t know.”
Williams didn’t mention the fact that she will probably be playing in the Australian Open in January while recovering from what’s being called a left ankle injury. She just said, “Just like, that’s just
