Tennis legend Serena Williams is clearing the air on speculation that her viral dance during the Super Bowl halftime show was casting shade against her ex, Drake.
During the halftime show by Kendrick Lamar, Williams danced on a podium and crip walked as Lamar was performing “Not Like Us,” his diss track against Drake.
In a new interview with “Time,” she insists she wasn’t dissing Drake by joining the performance.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that. I respect how they could. Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”
Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, had also shut down that idea, writing on X on Feb. 10 “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows … This is bigger than the music.”
He was referencing how she performed that same dance at Wimbledon after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. A crip walk is a dance move that originated from the Los Angeles Crips gang.
Williams said joining the performance was paying homage to her hometown of Compton, where Lamar is also from.
“Who would have thought that a tennis player from Compton would be regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time?” She said in an interview with TIME. “It was just putting an exclamation on it.”
“I don’t know if I regret it or not,” she said of her decision to perform. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
The star athlete explained that she wasn’t preoccupied with public perception at the Super Bowl, instead she and her husband were more focused on getting an autograph for their daughter from Taylor Swift, who was at the game supporting her boyfriend Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“My husband and I, we’re so in a different space,” she said. “We’re so connected, we’re so in love, we’re just, like, trying to get our daughter Taylor Swift autographs. And nothing else.”
“We’re investing in women and in sports,” she added, as her husband has a stake in National Women’s Soccer League team Angel City FC and Williams has become part owner of the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo. “This is literally the last thing on our minds. Come on.”