Serena Williams controversial GLP-1 Super Bowl | NFL News

The advert confirmed Williams injecting the GLP-1 and ordering a new tablet model via Ro’s cellular app. She claimed the drug alleviated knee joint stress and diminished levels of cholesterol. On social media, however, one person took goal at Williams for “pushing weight loss drugs”, branding it “disgusting.” “Known athlete, Serena Williams, pushing weight loss drugs on people was not on my Super Bowl bingo card,” one particular person posted. Another critic labelled it a “shame” that Williams was selling the “controversial weight loss injection during the Super Bowl.” A fourth chimed in by including: “Absolutely disgusting.”

GLP-1 agonists are a class of medicines that mainly help handle blood sugar (glucose) ranges in people with Type 2 diabetes. Some GLP-1 agonists can also help deal with obesity. In August 2025, the tennis hero told People magazine she began utilizing the drug after struggling to lose weight following the delivery of her second daughter.

Williams said: “I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained. It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at.”

Williams welcomed her daughter Adira River Ohanian into the world in August 2023. She and her husband Alexis Ohanian also have an eight-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Williams revealed to People that she started utilizing the medication in 2024 after she stopped breastfeeding Adira.

“I had never taken shortcuts in my career and always worked really hard,” she added. “I know what it takes to be the best. So it was very frustrating to do all the same things and never be able to change that number on the scale or the way my body looked.”

Williams continued: “I lost over 31 pounds using my GLP-1, and I was really excited about that weight loss. I feel great. I feel really good and healthy. I feel light physically and light mentally.”

Ohanian is an investor in Ro and sits on the company’s board. Social media customers expressed their disappointment, having hoped Williams may announce a comeback to tennis. The athlete retired at the 2022 US Open in New York City.