Serena Williams consults with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle before deciding to retire from tennis.
One of the many nuggets we learned from the debut episode of Meghan Markle's new Spotify podcast "Archetypes." One of her closest friends, legendary tennis player Serena Williams, consulted with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before deciding to retire from the sport this year.
Williams announced her retirement from professional tennis earlier this month, but before doing so, the 23-time Grand Slam winner spoke at length with Harry about it, according to Insider.
"I've known you for a long time and I've talked to Harry a lot," Williams said on "Archetypes."
"I remember the day you came to our house," Markle said. And I was like, "What are you two chatting about?" I was like.
As Insider says, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "are, of course, well aware of the difficulties of moving away from the roles that have defined them." The couple stepped down from active membership in the royal family in January 2020. Williams said that in their conversation, Harry "was trying to hammer something into me."
"The three of us really know that sometimes the right decision is not the easiest decision," Markle said. 'It's a hard decision. And it takes a lot of thought, a lot of advice, and a lot of support to just go 'um, yeah, um' and just make a choice."
Williams noted that his decisions were more difficult because "my life was all one thing," and he added, "As you know, being on the fence is the worst place to be. So I make decisions. I like what I'm doing, so I've been on the fence for a while"
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Williams, grateful for Markle's willingness to be her sounding board, secretly sent the Sussexes an article in Vogue announcing her eventual decision to retire. Williams said, "I wanted them to understand all that your support, and H's support, meant to me."
Williams will play in the opening round of the 2022 U.S. Open in New York tomorrow in what will likely be the last tournament of his professional career.
Williams said in "Archetypes," "I've been doing this since I was born. Even before I was born, it was what I was meant to do, what I was meant to do, what I was chosen to do."
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