Serena Williams is coming clean about the meaning behind her appearance in Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance.
The tennis legend, 43, made waves when she made a brief cameo in the halftime show while Lamar, 37, belted out his hit diss track “Not Like Us,” aimed at his rapper nemesis, Drake, 38.
Many people thought her surprise appearance during the Eagles vs. Chiefs matchup was a hit on her ex Drake, whom she dated in 2014.
“Absolutely not,” Williams told Time’s 100 Most Influential People in an issue published on April 15.
“I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that. I respect how they could, she said. “But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”
Regardless of how others interpreted her appearance in the show, Williams said, “I don’t know if I regret it or not.”
The former tennis star said she’s been trying to do something with Lamar for ages.
Lamar had previously seen Williams do the crip walk at Wimbledon after winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, a performance that drew some criticism from the media.
At the time, a columnist compared her dance moves to “cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church.”
However, the rapper liked how Williams represented hip-hop’s culture on the world stage and asked her to do the dance during his halftime show, Williams said.
“I’m like, ‘Wait, what, you’re asking me?’” Williams told the outlet.
“I’m not Taylor Swift, let’s be honest. I would have a better chance to be quarterback at the Super Bowl than dance,” she added.
not serena williams c walking with kendrick at the super bowl 💀 pic.twitter.com/g2H3ENVpUx
— Brownies & Lemonade🍫🍋 (@TeamBandL) February 10, 2025
Williams’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, has also denied claims that his wife’s appearance in the show was meant to be a dig at her ex.
He previously said the matter was simply “bigger than the music.”
In a post shared to X on February 10, Ohanian wrote, “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago, and it shows.”
Drake has made it clear that he’s not happy with Lamar’s diss track
Regardless of the meaning behind his exes cameo, Drake has made it clear that he isn’t pleased with the lyrics in “Not Like Us.
In the diss track, Lamar calls him a “certified pedophile” and warns people to “hide their ‘lil sister from him.”
At one point in the song, Lamar raps, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young. You better not ever go to cell block one.”
Drake sued Universal Music Group for defamation over the rapper’s hit song, but has otherwise stayed fairly quiet in the wake of the song’s popularity.
