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Serena Williams on her decision to stop breastfeeding: 'I cried a little bit'

The tennis superstar said after delaying the decision for months, her weight led her to stop nursing.
/ Source: TODAY

Count Serena Williams among the moms literally weighing in on the confusingly controversial world of breastfeeding.

The tennis superstar revealed that she stopped nursing her daughter, Alexis Olympia, because she wasn't dropping the baby weight she had expected to lose from breastfeeding.

"I feel like everyone says, 'You're so thin when you breastfeed,’” she explained Sunday during a London news conference Sunday before her upcoming Wimbledon tournament match.

But despite returning to her training work outs and following a careful, vegan-only diet, Williams wasn't shedding the pounds she wanted.

“What I've learned through the experience — everybody is different, every person is different, every physical body is different," she said. "For my body, it didn't work, no matter how much I worked out, no matter how much I did, it didn't work for me."

Williams said once she stopped breastfeeding, she lost 10 pounds in a week.

"It was crazy. I just kept dropping. That's when I learned that everything was different," she said. "Sorry to go on about that, but I wanted to say that so women out there know that's not true. Everyone takes things different. I think it’s important for us to share that message.”

Williams said she made the decision to stop breastfeeding once she was emotionally ready.

“I literally sat Olympia in my arms, I talked to her, we prayed about it,” she said. “I told her, ‘Look, I’m going to stop. Mommy has to do this.’ I cried a little bit, not as much as I thought I was. She was fine."

Williams said she originally planned to stop breastfeeding Olympia in January.

“Then January became March. March became April. I was still breastfeeding," she said. "For me, it was really important to make it through three months, then it was important to make it to four months. I was like, 'OK, I can do six months.'"

Although Williams' parenting journey initially included a medical scare — a pulmonary embolism she had following her C-section — her health has rebounded and she has been open about her love for motherhood.

“If I weren’t working, I’d already be pregnant,” she told Instyle magazine for the publication's first issue dedicated to "badass women."

A pectoral muscle injury forced Williams to pull out last month from the French Open, her first major tournament since giving birth. Her Wimbledon appearance will be her first since 2016.