As the father of two of the greatest tennis players of all time, fans have been curious about Richard Williams’ net worth for decades. Richard—the father of Serena and Venus Williams—was born on February 14, 1942, in Shreveport, Louisiana. After he graduated from high school, he moved to Saginaw, Michigan, before eventually relocating to California, where he met his first wife, Betty Johnson.
Richard and Johnson married in 1965 and welcomed five children—Sabrina, Richard III, Ronner, Reluss, and Reneeka—before their divorce in 1973. In 1979, Richard met Oracene “Brandy” Price, who had three daughter with her late husband. The two married in 1980 and had two daughters—Venus and Serena—before their divorce in 2002. Richard married a third time in 2010 with Lakeisha Juanita, a grocery store owner who’s a year older than Venus. The two welcomed a son named Dylan in 2012 and divorced in 2017.
After Venus and Serena were born, Richard—who learns how to play tennis from a man nicknamed “Old Whiskey—decided that his daughters would be professional tennis players when he saw Virginia Ruzici, a professional tennis player from Romania, on television, according to Jacqueline Edmondson’s 2005 book, Venus & Serena Williams: A Biography.
According to the biography, Williams wrote an 85-plan and started teaching Venus and Serena when they were four and three. When Venus and Serena were 10 and nine, Richard moves their family from Compton, California, to West Palm Beach, Florida, to train them under Rick Macci, the same tennis coach that trained players like Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.
In 1995, however, Richard pulled Venus and Serena from Macci’s tennis academy and coached them at home. The decision came after he also stopped sending Venus and Serena to junior tennis tournaments, so they could focus on school. He decision to keep them out of tournaments also came after he heard parents of other players disparage Venus and Serena with racial remarks.
In 2021, Richard, who served as Venus and Serena’s coach for most of their tennis careers, became the inspiration of the movie, King Richard, which follows Serena and Venus’ childhood and how their father made them the tennis superstars fans know today. The movie starred Will Smith as Richard and Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton as Venus and Serena respectively.
“There’s a scene where my dad says…” Serena told Entertainment Weekly in 2021 about King Richard. “Well, Will says that you’re doing this for every Black girl. And that really hit me in a different way because obviously at the time we didn’t know.” Serena also explained to EW why she and Venus wanted their father to be the focus of the movie, instead of them. “There are so many ways to tell this story. But I think telling it through my dad was the best way because he had the idea. He knew how to do it,” she said.
So what is Richard Williams’ net worth and where is he now? Read on for what we know about Richard Williams’ net worth and how much he’s made as the father of two of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Where is Richard Williams now?
So where is Richard Williams now? In 2016, Richard, who was 74 at the time, suffered a stroke. His wife at the time, Lakeisha, told Radar Online that Richard was in stable condition but would need speech and physical therapy. “His condition is fair,” she said. “He’s up and walking around, but he’s not at 100 percent.” She continued, “He needs speech therapy, psychological therapy and physical therapy but for now he refused. I’m trying to get him under control and relaxed so that when we come back from out of town we could try to get that going. But he doesn’t wish to be bothered with anybody.”
He went on to suffer two more strokes. According to court documents obtained by The Daily Mail in 2020, Richard has since been diagnosed with dementia due to “brain damage” from his most recent strokes. The documents also claim that he is “totally incapacitated to conduct any business.” The documents were filed amid Richard’s legal war with his ex-wife, Lakeisha, whom he divorced in 2017. Richard claimed that Lakeisha had falsely transferred his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, into her name.
According to the documents, Richard’s doctor testified that Serena and Venus’ father had an “inability to remember things” and that his “muscles weakened” after he suffered a series of strokes in 2016 that left him barely able to speak. Richard claimed that Lakeisha had forged his signature on the mortgage papers to transfer the property to her. His lawyers claimed at the time that, if he did sign the documents, his “mental capacity was compromised” from the strokes, so he didn’t understand what he was signing. As of June 2021, the case is ongoing, according to The Sun.
What is Richard Williams’ net worth?
So what is Richard Williams’ net worth? Richard is worth $20 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Though Richard is a multi-millionaire, his net worth is still just a fraction of how much his daughters Serena and Venus are worth. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Venus is worth $95 million, with more than $42 million earned in prize money from the Women’s Tennis Association.
Serena, for her part, is worth $210 million, with more than $94 million earned in prize money. Serena also received $55 million from Nike, which she signed a five-year endorsement deal with in 2003. In an interview with GQ in 2021, Serena opened up about how her father was “before his time.” “My dad was and still is way before his time. You see, when someone is different—when they don’t act or look how a person assumed they would—the first reaction is often fear,” she said. “They think, How do we break them? My dad anticipated that, but he would not allow himself or his family to be broken.”
Serena also told Refinery29 in 2021 about how she and her sister, Venus, wouldn’t be the tennis players they are today if it wasn’t for their father. “There would be no Venus and Serena if it wasn’t for Richard,” she said. “He’s always thinking on a different level. Even now, he is always thinking five steps above everyone else. And the way he taught tennis with techniques, the way he pushed myself and my sister, it was a great opportunity to tell his story.”
