Serena Williams took to X on Aug. 5 to call out a Paris restaurant for denying her entry to what she claimed was an “empty” rooftop dining area. According to the tennis champ’s post, the incident happened at Peninsula Paris, a five-star tourist hotel in the city.
“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids,” the retired athlete penned.
Source: WWD / Getty
Williams, 42, didn’t elaborate on what transpired after she was reportedly denied entry to the upscale restaurant. However, the Peninsula Paris has since apologized to the mother of two, stating that their rooftop area was “fully booked” for the evening.
“Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved,” the swanky hotel penned.
Additionally, Maxime Mannevy, a staff member of the Peninsula Paris told Variety that Williams looked “unrecognizable” when she arrived at the restaurant with a female companion and her children.
“When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” Mannevy, who was not working at the time of the incident, revealed. “My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”
Social media reacts to Serena Williams’ post.
After Williams’ post went viral, social media users flooded the comments section to weigh in on the situation, with some alleging that the tennis star was turned away due to her skin color. One commenter suggested that racism against people of darker skin tones is prevalent in the City of Lights.
“French racism is truly unique. Having been denied service TWICE in empty restaurants, I felt like shit. But The Peninsula of all places were racist to Serena Williams of all people? WTF,” they penned.
However, several netizens criticized Williams’ approach to addressing the incident, labeling her as “entitled” and a “brat.”
This isn’t the first time that Williams has put someone in their place.
In 2022, Williams took to X to slam the New York Times after the publication released an article about her venture capital fund using a photo of her sister, Venus.
The article was in celebration of the tennis player’s company, Serena Ventures, which raised an inaugural fund of $111 million to help empower diverse and underrepresented entrepreneurs with the capital to scale companies that will impact and disrupt the business world.
Williams slammed the New York Times for the major oversight on X, writing:
“No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough. This is why I raised $111M for @serenaventures. To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked. You can do better, @nytimes.”
What do you think? Was Serena Williams being “entitled”?
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