Tennis star Serena Williams has sent a clear to message to the online trolls who claimed she has been bleaching her skin.
The 43-year-old addressed her 17.3million followers on Instagram earlier this week while promoting her makeup brand, Wyn Beauty.
As she applied her concealer she explained it was ‘actually [her] skin colour’.
She continued: ‘And no, for you haters out there, I do not bleach my skin.
‘There is a thing called sunlight and in that sunlight you get different colours.’ Serena shared that she isn’t ‘posting and recorrecting’ her pictures.
Serena also addressed a recent viral video which garnered unwanted attention as floods of people commented about her skin. She said she was wearing ‘stage makeup’ for her daughter’s play.
‘Yes. I’m calling you out on this because it is ridiculous that everyone is like “Oh she bleaches her skin.”
‘I’m a dark Black woman and I love who I am and I love how I look. And that’s just not my thing.
‘And if people do it that’s their thing, and they have every opportunity, and they should, I don’t judge but you guys do. But that’s what this world is about and I stay in my lane, the non-judgey one and I keep it.’
She concluded by reiterating her message: ‘No, I actually don’t bleach my skin. So can we just kind of clear that up?’
In the TikTok video with her husband, Alexis Ohanian, 40, the pair were volunteering for their daughter, Olympia’s, school play.
In response, trolls accused her of having lighter skin and using chemical peels to achieve a paler complexion.
‘Serena isn’t bleaching her skin, she isn’t white washed, stop projecting your hatred onto people you don’t know, especially because they have a white spouse,’ X user @swan_coat wrote.
And @bbcwurld added that it was clearly a combination of ‘makeup lighting’.
There were plenty of people supporting and uplifting the retired sporting icon after her latest powerful statement.
‘Serena is not bleaching. Your skin changes as you get older if you look at your aunts and moms you would know that. Leave this un-problematic woman alone,’ @rawnie_mamba said.
Her beauty brand is pegged as ‘as makeup you can move in.’
The website continues: ‘We believe in the beauty of showing up as the best version of yourself, so we make products for life, not just a photo finish’ with a promise that products are tested with ‘deeper skin tones as the starting point.’
The 39-time Grand Slam winner, who has been in the public eye for almost three decades and has spoken about dealing with false public perception before, especially within a predominantly white sporting discipline.
‘No matter what you do, it’s always, “Oh, she’s mean,” or “Oh, she’s this,” and none of that is necessarily true,’ she told Harper’s Bazaar earlier this year.
‘So it’s [about] breaking down those false narratives and also being okay with being yourself and letting people see that.
‘I think it’s something that we have to talk about and embrace more: “These barriers also have to be broken down.” And I’m okay to do that too.’
Although Serena is carving a path for herself away from tennis as she looks towards the future, she is still very much involved in sporting excellence as proven by her cameo at the Paris Olympics this summer.
During her time in the city, however, she shared her dismay at her family being turned away from a five-star hotel’s rooftop restaurant.
The hotel responded saying that the empty seats she saw were from the gourmet restaurant L’Oiseau Blanc which was fully booked.
The hotel added they ‘always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible.’
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