Yahoo Lifestyle Whoopi Goldberg Just Slammed Stephen A. Smith For Suggesting That He’d Divorce Serena Williams Over That Super Bowl Moment
Whoopi Goldberg is speaking out in defense of Serena Williams amid mixed reactions to her Super Bowl moment.
I’m sure you’re aware by now that Serena joined Kendrick Lamar on stage during the halftime show on Sunday — and that she was filmed Crip Walking as Kendrick rapped his infamous Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
Given that Serena was romantically linked to Drake around a decade ago, several people — including media personality Stephen A. Smith — were quick to accuse the athlete of trolling her apparent ex.
For context, Drake has name-dropped Serena and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, in his song lyrics over the years. In 2022, he called Alexis a “groupie” on his track “Middle of the Ocean,” and just last year, he revealed that his 2016 hit “Too Good” was about Serena.
Stephen boldly said on ESPN’s chat show First Take, “If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass, ’cause clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for and you’re with me? Bye. Bye.”
Stephen’s divisive comments were soon addressed by Alexis, who has been married to Serena since 2017. After branding the halftime show “fantastic,” the Reddit cofounder pointed Stephen toward the real meaning behind Serena’s halftime show appearance.
“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 tweeted, referencing the fact that Serena was accused of “glamorizing gang culture” when she performed the move in celebration after beating fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova.
Alexis was praised for defending Serena and highlighting the importance of her Crip Walk, and now, The View host Whoopi has called Stephen out as well. On Tuesday’s episode of the talk show, Whoopi questioned why Stephen immediately linked Serena’s halftime cameo to Drake.
“Why wasn’t it, ‘Damn, Serena was great?’ Why is it about some ex-boyfriend she hasn’t thought of?” Whoopi said. “She got a chance to do something she wanted to do, and she went and did it, and instead of saying, ‘Damn, that was kind of great,’ you’re bringing it back to some old stuff.”
Insisting that Serena’s cameo was “not about Drake,” Whoopi added, “Stop trying to make it about somebody’s man. It ain’t always about somebody’s man. It’s about the person. Forget all that other stuff.”
You can watch the full episode of The View right here.
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