Twenty three-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams has opened up about the time before her daughter's birth and how she feared she might not return to the tennis court post her delivery. In April 2017 Williams had revealed she was 20 weeks pregnant and would miss the remainder of the season, and on September 1 she gave birth to Olympia. She had a cesarean-section delivery due to a pulmonary embolism during labour.

"I can't believe how much went wrong on my way to meeting her. I almost died. But now she is the reason why it means even more than it did before. Still, there is no escaping the fear," Williams said in the documentary, Being Serena streaming on Discovery Plus.