Venus Williams is engaged to actor-producer Andrea Preti.
The tennis star, 44, confirmed that she is engaged to 36-year-old former model after her first singles match in over a year at age 45 on Tuesday, July 22.
In a post-match interview, Rennae Stubbs asked, “You are now an engaged woman. So, how has Andrea helped you in this comeback? You’re happy, a smile on your face. I mean, how much has he made a difference in your life?”
“My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,” Williams replied.
“There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill,” she continued. “Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don’t know how much work goes into this, like it’s 9 to 5 except you’re running the whole time. Lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. So he encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here. He’s never seen me play.”
While the couple has kept their romance private, Williams and Preti, whose acting credits include the Italian television series A Professor and the film One More Day, were seen boating in Nerano, Italy, along the Amalfi Coast on July 27.
Related: Venus Williams Enjoys Italian Boating Excursion with Actor Andrea Preti
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For Venus — whose last appearance on the tennis court was a March 2024 defeat at the Miami Open — the new relationship comes three years after the seven-time Grand Slam winner said she wasn’t “desperate” to settle down.
“I have a lot of friends who don’t believe me when I say that I like my life and I don’t want to change it for any reason. I’m not desperate and they don’t believe me,” the tennis star revealed in a 2021 Cosmopolitan cover story.
Related: Venus Williams Says She’s Not ‘Desperate’ to Settle Down: ‘I Like My Life’
Williams, who was linked to model Elio Pis in 2012, then elaborated on her dating strategy.
“They say things like, ‘You’re going to miss your window,’ ” Williams said about her friends. “I’m like, ‘Please, relax. You might feel this way, but I don’t. I promise you I don’t.'”
In the October 2022 issue of Glamour UK, Williams opened about how she was working on her dating life.
“I’ve had a single life for a long time and I think it’s really easy to get stuck in a single life and sometimes – at least for me – harder to get out,” she said at the time. “It makes you think about yourself and what you want and how to behave.” Williams added that when the right person comes along, she’s willing to go with the flow. “When life changes, you’ve got to know when to change,” Williams explained.
She added, “You can’t hold on to either a relationship or the singleness.”
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