With 23 Grand Slam titles to her name, Serena Williams certainly knows a thing or two about prize money. However, on the latest episode of Hot Ones, the retired tennis legend told a funny story to prove that the payouts certainly weren’t always her top priority.
While eating their way through the lineup of spicy hot wings, host Sean Evans asked Serena to comment on rumors that she would “rarely” collect her prize money and once “unsuccessfully” tried to deposit a $1-million check at a drive-thru ATM.
“I never played for money,” she said after confirming that the stories were true. “I played ’cause I loved the sport… I don’t even know if I wanted to play to be the best; I wanted to win.”
Serena recalled that her tax advisor often had to remind her to collect her winnings throughout tours, particularly after losing.
“So my tax guy, he would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich,’ ‘Oh, I forget that one in Moscow,’ … I was just playing to win,” she said. “And if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking.”
Eventually, she received a check for $1 million of accumulated winnings. However, Serena wasn’t used to handling large sums of money then, so she had a little trouble cashing it in.
“I never really spent a lot of money, you know? I was so serious. I don’t know what happened to me,” she said. “I went through the drive-thru…and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK’…lessons to learn.”
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