The luxury restaurant Serena Williams accused of turning her and her children away has responded after she called them out on social media.
The tennis icon claimed that she wasn’t permitted to eat in the rooftop of Paris’ The Peninsula — despite saying the place was “empty.”
“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024,” Williams wrote on X, adding a melting face and rolling eyes emoji.
The restaurant quickly responded to the 23-time Grand Slam winner as the staffers doubled down on why they denied Williams and her children a table.
“In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation,” the hotel said in a statement to The Post.
“We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible.”
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
“On August 5th, our 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. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel’s La Terrasse Kléber,” the statement concluded, adding that they “have reached out to Ms Williams directly.”
The hotel’s statement came after it issued a public response to the former athlete on X Monday night with a similar sentiment.
“We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris,” they wrote in a follow-up post.
Williams, 42, is in Paris watching the Olympics with her family, including her 6-year-old daughter, Olympia.
She was among the celebrities and athletes partaking in the Games’ opening ceremony on July 26, sharing a boat with Rafael Nadal, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci.
The former tennis ace described the ceremony “unforgettable.”
“From being part of an amazing Opening Ceremony at the Paris Olympics-to riding in the boat in the rain-and it was pouring! So much so my lashes came right on off,” she joked on X.
In addition to her legendary run of Grand Slam victories, Williams won four total Olympic gold medals, including in both singles and doubles in London in 2012.
Williams hung up her racket following the 2022 US Open.
Tennis at the Olympics came to a dramatic close on Sunday at Roland Garros where Serbia’s Novak Djokovic emerged victorious to claim gold against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic won 7-6, 7-6 in straight sets to notch his first ever Olympic gold medal. Williams was in attendance at the match-up.
