Serena Williams' Journey From Drake Drama to Under-the-Radar Happiness

 The tennis star announced yesterday, via a quickly-vanishing Snapchat, that she is expecting a baby with fiancé Alex Ohanian. We will pause here for the obligatory slow claps and champagne pops. Beyond the incredibly happy baby news, this new milestone marks the culmination of a full romantic turnaround for Williams. It was not long ago that she was embroiled in the tabloid drama that comes with associating with none other than Drake. Yet, in barely more than a year, she started a journey to complete happiness that is as impressive as her many Grand Slam wins. 

 Drake and Williams were first ousted as a rumored couple in August 2015, when they were photographed getting cozy in a Cincinnati restaurant. Drake had previously been spotting sitting courtside at one of her tennis matches, which brought a bit of speculation, but it was not until the prophetic paparazzi photos dropped that the rumors about the twosome really ramped up.

Drake and Williams had been friends for some time, and at the time of the Great Cincinnati Cuddle-Off our team learned that they had been dating for about a month. The relationship was instant tabloid fodder and the Twitter verse, naturally, exploded. From that point on pretty much nothing that they did as a couple could be kept a secret. 

According to our sources, they tried to keep a low profile as they were both "private people when it came to their personal lives," but it did not work out well at all. It was, for lack of a better term, a media circus for the ages. 

They were photographed together everywhere they went, from his restaurant opening in Toronto to dates out on the town to front row at her New York Fashion Week show. Perhaps the most infamous example was the 2015 US Open semifinal match, a case of the entire public totally missing the point. Drake was seated front row at the big match—as any supposed boyfriend would do—but the second that Drizzy was spotted in the house, attention immediately shifted to the rapper and his relationship with Williams. 

The tennis star ended up losing that tournament in straight sets (that is tennis speak for a very bad match), and fans immediately accused Drake of distracting her. The rumors and accusations went flying in half-joking, half-serious manners, but it was all absurd nonetheless. So absurd,that over a year later Serena felt compelled to address it in a cover interview for Glamour. 

Then, in almost as much of a surprise fashion as the Drake-Serena relationship began, the two were done. As anyone who's had a Hollywood breakup will tell you, being constantly followed and critiqued in a relationship does not a sustainable coupling make. Sadly for Williams, it was not the first time she had learned such a lesson. Her previous relationship with rapper Common had been splashed across the front pages of every glossy in the grocery aisle, and their ensuing dramatic breakup was even more widespread. 

But there was almost no time to mourn for Serena, because she had met someone new. And this time it was a guy that she could take seriously. 

Since the tennis player and the Reddit co-founder got together, they have been operating in the exact opposite fashion from what we had come to expect from one of the sports world's biggest stars. They never made an official "we are dating" announcement. They were almost never photographed together. In fact, the only reason anyone even knew they were together from the start is on account of their friend's overly chatty tendencies.