The husband of Serena Williams recently received a surprise health diagnosis – and showed none of the symptoms usually associated with the disease.
Alexis Ohanian, the 41-year-old Reddit co-founder who has been married to the tennis icon since 2017, announced that he had Lyme disease via a post on X (formerly Twitter).
‘’Doing a full battery of health scans, tests, etc, and found out I have Lyme disease,’’ he wrote on Tuesday night.
‘’No symptoms, thankfully, but gonna treat (it).
‘’Good cholesterol is too low. Bad cholesterol is just OK. Gotta work on that.’’
Ohanian added that he had a ‘’loved one’’ who had been diagnosed with the tick-borne disease several years ago ‘’and just couldn’t figure it out until they tested him for it (treated it successfully, too).’’
‘’I spend so little time in the wilderness/northeast (US), this was quite a surprise,’’ he added.
Ohanian said he was already receiving treatment for the disease.
‘’Can’t keep me down, tick!’’ he joked.
Lyme disease is a tick-bite illness most often found in the United States, the UK and parts of Asia.
Within Australia, Lyme disease is generally not diagnosed because the type of bacteria associated with the disease is not found here.
The infection is caused by the Borrelia bacteria, which is transmitted through the bite of an infected tick, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Early symptoms of Lyme disease include flu-like symptoms, joint pain, headaches, fatigue, and occasionally a rash – none of which Ohanian experienced.
At its worst and left untreated, Lyme disease can be seriously debilitating, spreading through the bloodstream to infect the membranes surrounding the brain (meningo-encephalitis) or the heart (myocarditis and pericarditis).
Most cases of Lyme disease can be treated with 10-14 days using antibiotics. If treated early, the symptoms of Lyme disease quickly disappear and patients make a full recovery.
Ohanian is not the first high-profile person to go public with their diagnosis of Lyme disease.
Model Bella Hadid, singers Justin Bieber and Shania Twain, and comedian and actress Amy Schumer have all had the disease.
When did Serena Williams get married?
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian met in 2015 when they were staying at the same hotel in Rome.
Completely by chance, they sat down next to each other in the hotel’s breakfast room, got chatting, and hit it off.
Later that year, Williams invited Ohanian to watch her play at the 2015 French Open.
They began dating whilst in Paris, and became engaged the following year.
On September 1, 2017, Williams gave birth to their first child, daughter Olympia, and they married on November 16 that year, with the nuptials held at the Contemporary Arts Centre in New Orleans.
Ohanian once told Vanity Fair that prior to meeting Williams, he wasn’t interested in tennis in the slightest.
‘’(I had) never watched a match on television or in real life,’’ he admitted.
‘’I really had no respect for tennis.’’
What has Alex Ohanian said about Serena Williams?
After Williams announced her retirement in late 2022, Ohanian took to X to gush about his wife.
‘’I’ve seen over the last 7 years how much y’all love my wife – what she means to so many, worldwide,’’ he wrote.
‘’It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
‘’Plenty of folks have told me how Reddit changed their life but the scale and impact of how Serena ‘changed my life’ stories absolutely dwarfs it. And that’s just the stuff I hear when people come up to me to say hi.
‘’You simply cannot overstate the size and influence she’s had on so many people. And for what it’s worth, as far as I can tell, she has no idea. She doesn’t think about it.’’
Does Serena Williams have any children?
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian have two daughters.
Alexis Olympia (known as Olympia) was born in September 2017 and Adira River was born in August 2023.
These days, Williams is busy focusing on her family and her various business interests, while Ohanian spearheads venture capital firm 776.
This year, Forbes estimated Williams’ net worth – in career earnings and endorsements – at around A$430 million.
Ohanian’s net worth was estimated by Forbes to be around A$220 million.
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