Venus Williams is an American treasure and one of the most iconic female athletes of the past fifty years, if not of all time. She is the reason why Wimbledon finally had to give women and men the same amount of prize money (something which only happened in 2007). Slander on Venus Williams’ name will not be tolerated. Well, Venus attended the ESPYs last Thursday. Her sister Serena was the host, and Venus is always welcomed at those sports events. Plus, she’s been going through a phase where she’s really visible and attending a lot of red carpet events this year.
Well, at the ESPYs, Venus was seated next to Prince Harry, with the Duchess of Sussex on Harry’s other side. When Harry stood up and walked to the stage to receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service, Venus stayed seated as Meghan stood to applaud her husband. Here’s the clip, and watch for Venus in the green dress.
Page Six, Perez Hilton and all of the British tabloids are now trying to make “Venus snubbed Harry” into a story, because they’re so f–king mad that Harry got such an amazing reception at the ESPYs despite their best efforts to smear him. If you watch the video though… Venus was merely delayed in standing. As the camera pans to Harry as he walks up to the stage, you can see Venus in the corner of the frame, starting to stand up. At the 35-second mark, I’m pretty sure that’s the back of Venus’s head too – she’s super-tall and yes, it appears that she’s standing. I can’t believe I have to do this like the Zapruter film, but *someone* issued talking points and tried to use Venus’s name to bash Harry, so here we are.
While Harry and Meghan are much closer to Serena Williams, they’re obviously cool with the whole Williams-Ohanian fam. Harry and Alexis Ohanian are friends and the Sussexes were obviously seated in Serena’s section – you can see Alexis, Olympia and Jill Smoller (Serena’s agent) seated behind Harry and Meghan, and Venus and Harry were seated beside each other for a reason. Don’t let people use Venus’s name to attack Harry.
Photos courtesy of Getty, ESPN.