Serena Williams expressed her disappointment with a fine restaurant in Paris.
On Monday, Aug. 5, the retired tennis player revealed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the Peninsula Hotel in Paris denied her and Alexis Ohanian’s children — Alexis Olympia Jr., 6, and Adira River, 11 months — a table on Monday.
“Yay @PeninsulaParis I’ve been denied rooftop access to eat in an empty restaurant in nicer places 🫠but never with my kids,” she wrote. “Always the first. 🙄 #Olympic2024.”
The restaurant then responded with the four-time Olympic gold medalist, 42.
“Dear Mrs. Williams, please accept our sincerest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only free tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully booked,” read the company’s first response on Monday.
“It has always been an honor to welcome you and we will always welcome you again. The Paris Peninsula,” another post followed.
Representatives for Williams and The Peninsula Paris did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Monday.
L’Oiseau Blanc employee Maxime Mannevy said Diversity that Williams looked “unrecognizable” when she arrived at the restaurant with another woman and a stroller.
“When she came, there were only two tables available and they were booked by hotel customers,” said Mannevy, who told the outlet she was not working while Williams was at the restaurant. “The colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would tell any other customer, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. It was absolutely nothing personal.”
The best celebrity reactions in the stands at Team USA’s gold medal gymnastics event
Carl Lewis, Rafael Nadal, Nadia Comaneci and Serena Williams during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on July 26, 2024.
YOAN VALAT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Peninsula Paris also released a statement to TODAY. “In response to Ms. Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as well as all our valued guests; we can only reiterate our deepest apologies for her perception of the situation tonight,” the hotel said.
The statement continued: “Today, August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only available tables at the time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully booked tonight. She is always and will be more than welcome with her family to the Peninsula.”
Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian was mistakenly called an ‘umbrella holder’ at the Olympics opening ceremony
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/the-peninsula-hotel-080524-5599fd589b904c39925a8ac0ee665dc9.jpg)
The Peninsula Hotel in Paris on March 6, 2021.
Alamy
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Williams and her family arrived in Paris just before the Olympics opening ceremonies. During the opening ceremony on July 26, the 23-time Grand Slam winner joined several athletes as a torch bearer.
After the opening ceremony, Williams stayed in the French capital and performed in various Olympic competitions. She attended the match in which Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeated Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and won gold in the men’s singles tournament.
Before retiring from tennis, Williams won four Olympic gold medals for Team USA. At the 2012 London Games, she won one in women’s singles and another in women’s doubles with her sister Venus. The pair also won women’s doubles gold at the 2000 Sydney Games and the 2008 Beijing Games.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education