"At the same time, I was a Pizza Hut cook" - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian jokes about sharp contrast between his and American's fortunes

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian recently reacted to the 23-time Major winner famously revealing that she tried to deposit a $1 million check into her bank account via a drive-thru ATM early in her career. The American also looked back on what he was up to around the same period.

Serena Williams married Reddit co-founder and entrepreneur Ohanian in 2017. They have a family of two daughters — six-year-old Olympia and her younger sister Adira River.

The 41-year-old businessman was at the 2024 ESPY Awards earlier this month, where he was asked to give thoughts on his wife's hilarious ATM story while speaking to ET Now's Denny Directo. He attributed Williams' financial ineptitude to her having begun hustling at a very young age.

"I already knew this story. You know what? I was floored! It was never about the money. You remember this. She started this as a child. She went on this journey of professional sport so early, and the priority was just being the best," Alexis Ohanian said at the ESPYs in early July. "Something even we would take for granted. Like, of course, you wouldn't deposit a check that big. For her, that's just a by-product of doing the job."

Ohanian also looked back on his own humble beginnings at the time, noting that he was either working at a Pizza Hut chain or a parking booth.

"And you know, God bless her. At that same time, I think I was working either as a pizza hut cook or in a parking booth" he added. "So I was depositing checks too, but a little smaller."

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Serena Williams on her attempt to deposit huge payout at drive-thru ATM - "The guy was like, 'I think you need to come inside for this'"

Serena Williams (Source: GETTY)

During her recent appearance on YouTube talk show Hot Ones, Serena Williams asserted that she 'never played for money'. The 42-year-old admittedly was so obsessed with winning that she never considered $1 million as too hefty an amount to transfer into her bank account via a drive-thru ATM.

"So I never played for money. Like, I played because I loved the sport. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win," Williams told Hot Ones host Sean Evans (12:14). "I got my cheque and it was a million dollars and I gotta go deposit it. I never spent a lot of money, so I was so serious," she added. "So I just went to a drive-thru... the guy was like, 'I think you need to come inside for this.' And I was like, 'Okay?' Yeah!"

Serena Williams is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time. Having turned pro in 1995, she nabbed 98 pro titles during her illustrious career. The 23-time Major winner also spent a whopping 319 weeks as the top-ranked singles player on the WTA Tour. She hung up her racquet after exiting the 2022 US Open in the third round.