Venus Williams suggests she always found it funny how people thought she and her sister Serena Williams were “faking” that their relationship was impeccable.

In the early 2000s, the Williams sisters established themselves as one of the best players in women’s tennis. Naturally, that led to the two frequently meeting in the latter stages of the biggest tournaments. In the end, they met 31 times and Serena won 19 times. Of those 31 meetings, nine came in Grand Slam finals and the younger sister also had more success there, beating their older sister seven times in such matches.

During that time, the Williams sisters also often played doubles together in Grand Slams and were adamant that their relationship was rock solid. However, some didn’t believe it, with some even arguing that there was no way their relationship could be so great when Serena was negatively impacting Venus’ success.

Venus Williams: I don’t think a lot of people understand the dynamic between me and my sister

“There’s been kind of a fascination about Serena and I, right? Because we played [against] each other so many times and people were like: ‘How do they, like, get along? Do they really like each other? They’re just faking it. So we’re really excited to actually share more of ourselves. I don’t think a lot of people know that much about us when it really comes down to it, especially our dynamic together,” the 45-year-old told Marie Claire UK.

Recently, Venus played her first tournament in 16 months at the Citi Open in Washington. When she arrived in DC, the seven-time Grand Slam champion was ecstatic about returning to play. Then, she dropped one comment that made the headlines – she said the only thing that would make her feel even better in Washington was if Serena were also there.

But the younger of the two sisters retired after the 2022 US Open champion and she has been firmly retired since then.