Alexis Ohanian Roasts Stephen A. Smith Over His Serena Williams Marriage Comments

The ESPN analyst admitted he wasn't qualified to talk about marital advice.

Alexis Ohanian called out ESPN's Stephen A. Smith for what he said about Serena Williams regarding the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. / Screengrab on Twitter/ @awfulannouncing

Stephen A. Smith isn't usually one to back down from a fight—unless that fight happens to be about married couples.

The ESPN analyst ruffled some feathers earlier this year when he commented on Serena Williams's Super Bowl 2025 halftime show cameo with Kendrick Lamar. Williams memorably made an appearance during Lamar's hit diss track, "Not Like Us," leading many to think the tennis icon was trolling her ex, Drake.

Smith didn't like seeing Williams perform that stunt: "If I'm married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a--. 'Cause clearly you don't belong with me. What you worried about him for and you're with me? Bye," he said on First Take in February.

Months later, Williams's husband, Alexis Ohanian publicly called out Smith for his dig at their marriage on Thursday's episode of First Take.

Ohanian was promoting his latest passion project—an all-women's professional track meet in NYC—when he took a not-so-subtle shot at Smith for the unsolicited marriage advice.

"Headlines are headlines, we can get into that another time," Smith replied. "Oh no, I am not qualified. Marital advice? Oh no, not me."

"You haven't been married before right?" Ohanian said. "'Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies. So I generally try to stay in my lane with advice."

"You hadn’t been married before, right? Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies." – Alexis Ohanian just checked Stephen A. Smith https://t.co/YghAXHoMrR pic.twitter.com/lks6l9zPEI

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 9, 2025

He seemed like he wanted to say more, but First Take host MJ Acosta-Ruiz quickly put an end to the conversation and cut to commercial.

Perhaps Smith would do well to keep Ohanian and Williams's relationship off-the-air next time, if only because it has almost nothing to do about sports.

---

More on Sports Illustrated

feed