Greatest-athlete-of-all-time Serena Williams and I have just started talking over Zoom when everything comes to an abrupt halt. “Are you in a car right now and don’t have a seatbelt on?” Williams asks with a tone only a mother would use. Okay, yes, I don’t have a seatbelt on while my Uber speeds up the West Side Highway. My cheeks flush as I click in, ashamed. “I couldn’t help myself,” the mother of two says. Now that I’m strapped in, she’s ready to talk.

The recent public discourse around Williams’s body—online commenters noticing a change in her physique and demanding to know how, exactly, it came about—isn’t anything new. “I’ve heard negative comments, along with a tremendous amount of positive comments, about my body my entire life,” says the 23-time Grand Slam winner, who announced

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