On Super Bowl Sunday, anticipation around Serena Williams was at an all time high, after teasers hinted at a ‘shock comeback.’
What arrived instead during Super Bowl LX was a controversial advertisement for a weight-loss drug.
The commercial, which aired in the first half of the game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, showed the 44-year-old tennis legend using a GLP-1 medication from telehealth provider Ro.
Williams was seen administering the drug and then placing another order via Ro’s app, teasing a forthcoming pill-based version.
Williams credited the drug with reduced knee joint stress, steadier blood sugar levels, and lower cholesterol, effectively framing the medication as a holistic health intervention.
But for many fans, that distinction offered little consolation. The backlash was swift, fuelled by disappointment that a figure who has long symbolised strength and resilience – particularly for women – would appear to bow to cultural pressure that still treats thinness as the ultimate ideal.
One wrote: ‘Serena Williams can be doing so much to champion women’s sports or the importance of body positivity but instead is pushing a weight loss drug in her retirement.’
Another posted: ‘Pushing Big Pharma weight loss injections while impressionable children watch feels wrong,’ while others just called it ‘disappointing.’
Williams became a sponsor for Ro last year and has spoken openly about using a GLP-1 drug after stepping away from professional tennis.
She has said she lost more than 30 pounds in a year, a result she framed as both liberating and hard-won. In an August 2025 interview with People, she explained that the decision followed a deeply frustrating period after the birth of her second child, Adira River Ohanian, in August 2023.
‘I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained. It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at,’ Williams said at the time.
She began using the drug in 2024, after finishing breastfeeding.
Still, critics are arguing that it’s potentially harmful for people to see Williams pushing weight-loss drugs on a Super Bowl-sized stage, particularly GLP-1s, which have become flashpoints in a wider cultural debate about body image, access, and medicalisation.
Williams’ involvement feels especially charged given her history: a Black woman whose muscular physique was once derided, now endorsing a product that promises to make her smaller.
Complicating matters further is the business entanglement. Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor in Ro and serves on its board. While not hidden, the connection has raised eyebrows.
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