Richard Williams, the father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams, was the major reason behind his daughters’ rise to the top. He was also the head coach of his daughters for decades and made sure they succeeded in their careers. However, his personal life wasn’t as successful as his professional one.
King Richard married his first wife, Betty Johnson, in 1965, and they had five kids together. However, they divorced in 1973. After seven years of separation, he tied the knot with Oracene Price in 1980. The couple had two daughters together, Serena and Venus, but the pair finalized their split in 2002.
Afterward, in 2009, Williams married grocery store owner Lakeisha Graham, and they had a child after three years of marriage. However, the former coach filed for divorce in 2017 with a number of accusations against Graham, such as theft and forging fake signatures.
Lakeisha’s troubles didn’t end there, as she is reportedly in $600k of debt. According to sources, she borrowed $279K from the moneylender, David Simon. However, she was not able to recover the money, and the debt has now increased to $623,000, which includes interest and lawyers’ fees.
Irrespective of all the ongoing issues, she is seen uploading pictures of herself having fun with her friends and sharing her lavish lifestyle on social media.
What happened between Step Mom and Richard Williams?
Seven years after finalizing his divorce from Oracene Price, Richard Williams tied the knot with Lakeisha Graham in 2009. The couple had an age difference of 37 years, and interestingly, she’s also just a year older than her stepdaughter, Venus Williams.
After three years of being married, in August 2012, Graham gave birth to a son, whom the couple named Dylan Starr Williams. Everything was going fine between the two until 2017, when Richard Williams filed for divorce, accusing Lakeisha Graham of stealing money, selling his cars without permission, and being an alcoholic.
In addition, she was accused of forging Richard’s signatures to gain sole proprietorship of their Palm Beach Gardens home in Florida. To counter the allegations, Graham stated that the former tennis coach is acting ‘erratic and hostile’.
Furthermore, the 42-year-old was also quoted as saying that she had to hide an “arsenal of firearms, including an AK-47,” because she was afraid that Richard Williams could do something to her child. She has also claimed that her ex-husband was never involved with the child. However, the final result of the court case is still pending.
