SERENA Williams has heaped praise on her dad King Richard by comparing him to Marvel’s Ironman in a recent magazine interview.
The Tennis star, whose upbringing was depicted in a recent biopic, insisted her father was a “superhero” despite alleged accounts of family abuse.
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Speaking to the Harpers Bizarre, she painted her father as a doting parent, describing the 2021 film about their upbringing – named King Richard – like a Marvel flick.
“I think King Richard is like Iron Man and that there still are other stories around it,” she said describing the portrayal of her Dad by Will Smith.
“The next, obviously, would be the Venus story, and then there’s always the story about our other three sisters, and then there’s like a mom, and then there’s the Serena story.”
She added that the film’s portrayal of her Dad in the November biopic was by no way misleading and had defied many people’s expectations of a pushy parent.
“A lot of people get this different story of sports fathers, especially tennis fathers, who are really overbearing. And that wasn’t necessarily my dad,” she said.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Well, how do you play tennis for so long?”
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“It’s because we weren’t raised in an environment where it was something that we abhorred.”
Serena, who has won 23 grand slams to date, also revealed details of her early training under her father as it was revealed that he would have them play alongside broken glass.
She said she was often be hesitant to tell her father about her injuries as she knew he would insist that she rest before continuing to play.
“He’s always like, ‘Take your time. You’ll be okay. Don’t play.'”
ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
The renewed praise of the doting father figure comes just months after The Sun exclusively revealed that the Tennis coach had previously been suspected of criminal abuse charges in a scathing bombshell police report.
Officers at the time of the incident in 1999, noted that mother had taken to “passive resistance” and firstly denied she was abused before refusing to give up the identity of the perpetrator.
“When I asked what happened again, she stated she hurt herself. She then stated later she was hurt by someone, but she would not reveal the identity of the perpetrator,” Officer Larry Enstrom wrote at the time.
“Ms. Williams stated to me, ‘I know you know what happened, but I am fearful for my daughters’ careers,'” he wrote in the bombshell report.
“The complainant stated because both of her daughters’ careers and their high profile claimed this incident would hurt them, and again I explained the domestic violence cycle.
“It is highly suspected by myself that Ms. Williams may have been assaulted by either her spouse and/or another family member, however, she remained adamant at not talking to me any further.”
The Sun reached out to the Williams family, including Richard’s lawyer, for comment but did not hear back.
FAMILY FEUD
Meanwhile, Serena and Venus’s half-sister, Sabrina Williams, has slammed her estranged father, 79, who she claims is painted as a saint in the new Will Smith movie, despite walking out on his first family.
Tragically it came just two years before her own son, …, reportedly took hos own life.
“He thinks he’s the king of the world, but no one that’s ever been around him thinks he’s King Richard,” she told The Sun in an exclusive interview. “It is an outrageous title, but to truth be told, it fits him.
“He’s not the king of the world. If you look at him psychologically, it’s something he’s never achieved apart from in his head – he’s lived only through two of his daughters forsaking all his other children.
“Truth be told, those girls rose to the top while his other children had to suffer because of the choices my dad made, we were raised in poverty after he left.”
Richard married Sabrina’s late mom Betty Johnson in Los Angeles in the early 1960 and they had four other children together – Richard III, 56, Ronner, 55, Reluss, 54, and Reneeka, 49.
But, when Sabrina was just eight, Richard allegedly dumped his wife and five kids – telling the little girl he was going to buy her a bike, but never returning.
Richard then married Oracene, Serena and Venus’s mother, in 1980, but they divorced in 2002.
He is now going through his third divorce having married his much younger wife, Lakeisha Graham, who has also accused him of bad behavior in a series of bombshell court documents.
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