Venus Williams is about to become a wife!
The tennis star has announced that she is engaged to her partner, actor and producer Andrea Preti, after over a year of dating.
Amid several months of speculation about their engagement, Venus confirmed yesterday (June 22) that she is set to tie the knot.
The 45-year-old chose to address the rumours in a post-match interview at the Washington Open, after her first singles match in over a year.
At the time, former Australian tennis player Rennae Stubbs asked: "You are now an engaged woman. So, how has Andrea helped you in this comeback? You’re happy, a smile on your face. I mean, how much has he made a difference in your life?"
Venus then went on to detail how her husband-to-be supports her throughout her career.
"My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing," she gushed.
"There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill. Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don’t know how much work goes into this, like it’s 9 to 5 except you’re running the whole time,” Venus explained.
“Lifting weights and just, like, dying and then you repeat it the next day. So he encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here. He’s never seen me play,” she added sweetly.
Venus and Andrea tend to keep their relationship private from the public eye. The couple were first linked romantically in July of last year, when they were spotted boating along the Amalfi Coast in Italy.
Then, in February of this year, the pair sparked engagement rumors when they were seen together outside of a tennis training session in Rome, and Venus was wearing a diamond ring on her left hand.
Speaking to Glamour in October 2022, Venus detailed her thoughts about settling down.
"I've had a single life for a long time and I think it's really easy to get stuck in a single life and sometimes – at least for me – harder to get out. It makes you think about yourself and what you want and how to behave,” she noted.
