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Serena Williams has slammed a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris after claiming she and her children were denied access.
In a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Olympic champion claimed that she and her family were not allowed to enter The Peninsula's rooftop restaurant. In the post, she noted that this was the first time she had been denied access with her family by her side.
“Wow @peninsulaparis!” she wrote. “I was denied access to a rooftop to eat at a restaurant empty of nicer places. [sic] But never with my children. It's always the first time.”
The Independent The Peninsula and a representative for Williams have been contacted for comment.
In late July, Williams arrived in the City of Light for the first time ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony, which she attended as a torchbearer. Williams joined a long tradition of athletes carrying the torch alongside fellow tennis champion Rafael Nadal, as well as nine-time medalist Carl Lewis, French icons Zinedine Zidane, Teddy Riner, Marie-José Pérec and Tony Parker.
She subsequently joined the Olympic crowd as a spectator rather than a champion having retired from professional tennis following the 2022 US Open. Over the course of her career, Williams has won four gold medals, including one during the women's singles at the London Games in 2012, while the other three came in women's doubles, where Williams and her sister, Venus Williams, were victorious at Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
She has been a frequent observer at several tennis matches over the past few weeks, including being in the audience when Novak Djokovic won gold against Carlos Alcaraz in the men's singles tournament.
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