American former professional tennis player Serena Williams has revealed how she tried depositing her first $1 million cheque in a drive-thru ATM.
Serena, 42, appeared on the latest episode of Hot Ones, where she recalled a moment of trying to deposit her first $1m tennis winnings in a drive-thru ATM.
“I never played for money,” Williams said after host Sean Evans asked her whether or not that story was true. “I played ’cause I loved the sport … I don’t even know if I wanted to play to be the best, I wanted to win.”
“So, my tax guy, he would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich,’ ‘Oh, I forgot that one in Moscow,’ … I was just playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking. I was just so angry, that I wanted to find a way to get better and win the next time,” she continued.
Talking about her first large paycheck, Williams said, “I never really spent a lot of money,” adding, “I went through the drive-thru … and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’
Williams, who shares daughters Adira, 10 months, and Olympia, 6½, with husband Alexis Ohanian, retired from tennis in September 2022.
