- Serena Williams says she remembers unexplainedly "hating" her husband Alexsis Ohanian and "his smell" during the early days of her pregnancy.
- Williams gave birth to her and Ohanian's first child, Alexis Olympia, in September 2017, just two months before they married.
- "I just remember it was windy and being angry, hating my now husband," she recalled to reporters in Australia, according to Essentially Sports. "It was like 'there's something about your smell, I don't like your smell'."
- Williams has enjoyed a strong start to the 2020 tennis season, winning all three of her matches at the ASB classic in Auckland, reaching the semifinals.
- She meets Amanda Anisimova on Saturday for a place in the final.
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Serena Williams says she remembers unexplainedly "hating" her husband Alexsis Ohanian and "his smell" during the early days of her pregnancy.
Williams gave birth to her and Ohanian's first child, Alexis Olympia, in September 2017, just over a year after the pair became engaged.
They married two months later, but when she was pregnant she recalls being enraged by his smell. "I just remember it was windy and being angry, hating my now husband," she recalled to reporters in Australia, according to AFP.
"I was like 'I can't stand you and I don't know why. Obviously, at the time, I didn't know why either. It was like 'there's something about your smell, I don't like your smell'. I was six weeks pregnant and had no idea.
"So looking back it's so surreal and crazy and now that I'm here, I have all these funny memories of being miserable."
Williams famously won the Australian Open in 2017 while seven to eight weeks pregnant, going the whole tournament without losing a single set.
She subsequently bowed out from tennis for just over a year, during which time she revealed having a medical condition that made her her prone to blood clots, and therefore her pregnancy potentially life-threatening.
After receiving treatment and giving birth, she returned to the court in March 2018, and has since been fighting to get back to her best form.
The 38-year-old has enjoyed a strong start to 2020, winning all three of her matches at the ASB classic in Auckland to reach the semifinals, where she meets Amanda Anisimova on Saturday.
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