Serena Williams accused a Paris hotel and restaurant of denying her and her family access into its venue. The 42-year-old tennis pro tweeted directly to The Peninsula Paris on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday, August 5, “Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in an empty restaurant of nicer places, but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024.” Now, the French venue has responded to her claim.
“In response to Mrs. Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we can only reiterate our deepest apologies for her perception of tonight’s situation,” The Peninsula responded in a statement, obtained by Us Weekly. “
The hotel continued by adding that on August 5, its “rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved tonight.”
Dear Mrs. Williams,
Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight.
Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.— The Peninsula Paris (@peninsulaparis) August 5, 2024
At the end of the statement, The Peninsula insisted that Serena “has always been, and will always be, more than welcome with her family at The Peninsula.”
In a follow-up message, The Peninsula responded to Serena’s tweet by doubling down on the fact that their bar was completely booked.
“Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight [sic],” the venue added.
Serena took a trip to Paris with her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughters, Olympia and Adira, to cheer on Team USA at the Olympic Games. Over the past few weeks, the family have been spotted in the stands at multiple events, including the volleyball men’s quarter-final match, the men’s singles gold medal match and the women’s gymnastics team final.
Most recently, Alexis, 41, showed his support for Team USA by donating thousands of dollars to Veronica Fraley. The 24-year-old discus Olympian revealed that she was struggling to pay her rent, and Flavor Flav and Alexis both chimed in to help her out.
“I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent,” Veronica tweeted on August 1. “My school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players (who haven’t won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses.”
Just hours after her post went viral online, Alexis tweeted a screenshot of the amount he sent her: $7,760.
