Serena Williams Opens Up About Struggling with Migraines While Playing

Credit: Fameflynet Pictures

Nothing can stop Serena Williams.

The tennis pro has played through shoulder inflammation, knee injuries — even pregnancy! But she’s also played her way towards 23 Grand Slam wins while dealing with heavy migraines.

Serena recently opened up about dealing with migraine attacks since her 20s.

“Migraine isn’t a knee injury — it’s something you can’t physically see,” she told People. “You can’t really say, ‘Oh, Dad, I have a migraine. I’m going to stop playing.’ People are like, ‘I don’t see swelling. I don’t see bruising. Tough it out.’ I got used to playing through the pain.”

The pro added that there have been “so many” matches where she had to power through her migraine attacks.

“You can’t go into a press conference with the media asking, ‘Well, what happened?’ and say ‘Well I had a migraine attack,’ ” she says. “I had to figure out a way to work through it.”

When the star went into quarantine, she says her migraine attacks became almost daily.

“It’s all incredibly stressful,” she said of the pandemic. “I was dealing with a lot of stress and unknown factors and things that I wasn’t used to, and so I think that was contributing to my migraine attacks and making them more frequent.”

Thankfully, her doctor prescribed a drug that can relieve pain and symptoms during a migraine attack. It worked so well for the tennis champ that she signed on as a spokeswoman!

We’re so happy you’re feeling good, Serena!