Billionaire Alexis Ohanian took a thinly-veiled swipe at ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith following his suggestion that Ohanian should consider divorcing his wife, Serena Williams, after her Super Bowl Halftime Show appearance. The tennis icon caused quite the stir on social media when she joined Kendrick Lamar onstage during his performance at Super Bowl LIX in February.
She began crip walking to the diss track “Not Like Us”, which is about Drake, with whom she previously had a romantic relationship. Following the controversial Halftime Show, Smith criticised Williams for “trolling” her ex and hinted that he would divorce the tennis icon if they were married. However, several months later, it appears that Ohanian has had the last laugh.
During an appearance on ‘First Take’ this week, Ohanian advised Smith to stick to what he knows best.
“You hadn’t been married before, right? Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies,” the Reddit founder retorted.
“So I generally try to stay in my lane in the advice department.”
In February, Smith questioned Williams’ decision to participate in a Drake diss track despite being married to Ohanian since 2017.
“You could say give her props,” he commented. “If I’m your husband, why are you up there trolling your ex?
“If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a**, because clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for and you’re with me? Bye bye.”
His fellow analyst Ryan Clark quickly jumped to Williams’ defence, stating: “If you’re with Serena Williams you’re going to be a kept man anyway.”
Smith’s comments sparked a wave of online backlash, leading him to somewhat retract his statements. “Please go back and look at exactly what I said. I was talking overall from a man’s perspective – highlighting what most men would think,” he posted.
“I didn’t utter a single disrespectful word about Serena. No issues with folks getting upset of literal serious stuff one’s p***** about. This doesn’t qualify peeps. Come on. We were joking around on @FirstTake. Damn y’all! It’s not that serious.”
As to why Smith remains unmarried, the 57-year-old attributes his single status to his demanding work schedule. “I know that it’s hard, I know that it’s worn on some people as well,” he admitted.
“It is the reason why I’ve never been married, because I was on the road 200 days out of the year and the fact of the matter is at that time it was no way in hell I was going to be faithful.
“I knew that, so why the hell am I going to sit up there and violate my marital vows knowing ahead of time I ain’t going to honour them?”.