Serena Williams calls out Paris restaurant for ‘denying access’ to her family

Tennis icon Serena Williams faced an unexpected setback on Monday when she was turned away from an upscale Paris restaurant while on vacation with her family during the ongoing Olympic Games.

Serena Williams criticized a luxury hotel in Paris on Monday evening for being “denied access” to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant along with her children. The retired tennis champion, who served as a torch bearer at the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympics, shared an anecdote about her experience at the Peninsula Paris on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places … but never with my kids,” Williams wrote. “Always a first.” She added on a hashtag for the Olympics.

A staffer at the Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, Maxime Mannevy, told Variety that Williams showed up to the premises with another woman and a stroller and looked “unrecognizable.”

“When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” said Mannevy, who shares that she was not working when Williams visited the restaurant. “My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”

Restaurant Apology and Explanation

In response, the fine-dining establishment issued an apology and clarified the situation.
“Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved,” read the restaurant’s initial reply.
A follow-up post added, “We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris.”

Although the 42-year-old, who is travelling with her children Olympia, six, and Adira, almost one, didn’t explicitly accuse the restaurant of racism, fans were quick to make the connection.
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