Serena Williams has shared the story behind her surprise cameo in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show.
The tennis extraordinaire, 43, was briefly featured dancing to Lamar's 2024 hit, Not Like Us - a diss track taking aim at her ex-boyfriend Drake.
An elated Williams agreed to take part in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and recreate the famous dance.
She revealed how the dance came to be as she shared Super Bowl halftime behind-the-scenes footage to her Instagram account.
'When @kendricklamar and team called and was like "we’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal,"' she captioned the video.
'I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a superbowl? (Never) let’s do it!
'I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day. End of story.'
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The video began with Serena practicing the dance in her trailer before getting glammed up to watch the show with her family.
The tennis pro was joined by husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and at least one of their two daughters.
She watched the game from the stands before returning backstage to change into her iconic blue look.
Serena was then taken back to the sidelines, where she did a few practice runs of the dance. 'This is a bad time to have to pee,' she joked.
Then, it was Serena's time to shine.
Serena danced at the corner of the spectacle on her very own platform as a camera trained on her.
'That was the best 10 seconds of my life! TEN SECONDS!' she exclaimed as she wound down with her team backstage.
Williams previously performed a similar celebratory dance following her victory against Sharapova at the 2012 Olympics in Wimbledon.
Culturally, the dance is symbolic as it was born in her hometown of Compton, California, where Kendrick was also bred.
The dance sparked controversy at Wimbledon years earlier due to its origins in gang culture and association with violence and death.
'I didn't crip walk like that at Wimbledon — I would have been fined!' Serena joked in video shared online following her performance on Sunday.
Her husband praised the half time show on X.
'Pretty fantastic halftime show,' he wrote after sharing photos of the field from his vantage point in a VIP box.
Alexis' connection to Serena began after their first meeting in May 2015, shortly before she and Drake appeared to end their relationship, which was on and off from 2011 to 2015.
She was later seen kissing the rapper in August 2015, but Alexis began to be a regular fixture with her on social media around that time.
The two kept their relationship fairly under the radar, until they engagement on December 29, 2016.
On September 1, 2017, she welcomed their first child, six-year-old Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., and they later tied the knot on November 16 of that year.
In August 2023, the happy couple revealed they had welcomed their second child, 15-month-old Adira River Ohanian.
