Serena Williams is looking back on a hilarious faux pas she made while trying to cash in on her first $1 million check. While appearing on Thursday’s episode of “ Hot Ones ,” the retired tennis legend reminisced on the moment she tried to deposit her massive tennis winnings into a drive-thru ATM at a bank early in her career. (“Hot Ones” is produced by First We Feast.
First We Feast and HuffPost share a parent company, Buzzfeed Inc.) After host Sean Evans asked her to confirm if the story was true, Williams explained, “I never really spent a lot of money. I was just so serious.
I don’t know what happened to me. I used to be serious.” She went on to clarify that she was so focused on “want[ing] to win” that her tax person had to keep reminding her to claim her earnings because she “loved the sport” so much that she “never played for money.
” “I never played for money. I played because I loved the sport ..
. I don’t even know at the time if I wanted to play to be the best, I just wanted to win,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion said. “And so my tax guy, he would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich,’ ‘Oh, I forgot that one in Moscow,’” she continued.
“I was playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I was just not thinking. I was just so angry that I wanted to figure out a way to get better and win the next time.” Then, Williams admitted to trying to cash her first million-do.
