Serena Williams didn’t maintain again from sharing how she feels about Harrison Butker‘s previous controversial feedback. Whereas internet hosting this yr’s ESPY Awards on Thursday, July 11, the 42-year-old former tennis professional dissed the 28-year-old Kansas Metropolis Chiefs participant as she identified ladies’s accomplishments in sports activities.
“So, go forward and revel in ladies’s sports activities such as you would another sports activities, as a result of they’re sports activities,” she stated, earlier than including, “Besides you, Harrison Butker. We don’t want you.”
Though Harrison attended the award present, cameras didn’t seize his response to Serena’s remark.
Two months prior, the soccer participant made headlines for his graduation handle at Benedictine School in Kansas. All through his speech, Harrison made feedback about ladies’s careers and reproductive rights, the LGBTQIA+ group and President Joe Biden‘s insurance policies.
“So, go forward and revel in ladies’s sports activities such as you would another sports activities, as a result of they’re sports activities.” – Venus Williams
“Besides you, Harrison Butker. We do not want you.” – Serena Williams
“In any respect. Like, ever.” – Quinta Brunson #ESPYS pic.twitter.com/RhvxfiHUWN
— Terrible Asserting (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2024
“For the women current immediately, congratulations on a tremendous accomplishment,” he stated. “You have to be happy with all that you’ve got achieved up to now in your younger lives. I need to converse on to you briefly as a result of I feel it’s you, the ladies, who’ve had probably the most diabolical lies advised to you. What number of of you might be sitting right here now about to cross this stage and are fascinated with all of the promotions and titles you will get in your profession? A few of it’s possible you’ll go on to steer profitable careers on this planet, however I’d enterprise to guess that almost all of you might be most enthusiastic about your marriage and the kids you’ll carry into this world.”
The athlete then claimed that his spouse, Isabelle Butker, “can be the primary to say that her life really began when she started dwelling her vocation as a spouse and as a mom.”
Harrison’s speech rapidly went viral on-line, and a number of celebrities and a few of his fellow Chiefs teammates spoke out about his feedback. Moreover, social media customers criticized him for his private beliefs.
Weeks after the commencement occurred, Harrison defended his feedback whereas showing at a gala in Nashville, noting, “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it’s now.”