Williams offered Vogue the first look into her retirement.

Williams has attended five Met Galas and showed off her baby bump during the May 2017 event in New York. She has also appeared on the cover of Vogue five times: in 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2020.

Serena Williams’ decision to announce her retirement to Vogue may have appeared weird to those who don’t conceive of the magazine as a traditional news channel, let alone a sports magazine, but it makes perfect sense.

Wintour first featured Williams in the magazine in 1998, when Annie Leibovitz shot her with her sister Venus in identical black-and-white Carolina Herrera ballgowns.

Williams has appeared on the cover of Vogue several times since then, including in 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2020.

Williams has attended five Met Galas and unveiled her baby bulge at the New York event in May 2017. The next year, Mario Testino photographed her with her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., for her Vogue cover.

Furthermore, celebrities breaking important pieces of news in fashion publications makes sense. Women’s publications exist only to praise women. Photographers and writers often treat cover topics well.

Their visibility there also helps them get campaigns and jobs as brand ambassadors.

Williams has slowly gone towards that realm throughout the years. In recent years, her corporate sponsors have included Nike, JPMorgan Chase, Beats by Dre, Pepsi, and Audemars Piguet, a Swiss watch company whose pieces normally cost more than $20,000.

When Williams married her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Wintour advised her on her wedding gown, which was created by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.

It was dubbed a “grand slam” by People magazine.