Serena Williams Pens Message to 'Selfless Friend' Meghan Markle After Oprah Interview

Serena Williams understands what Meghan Markle is going through. The tennis superstar took to Instagram to send Meghan, Prince Harry's wife, a message after her interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday evening, which aired on CBS. Meghan said an unnamed member of the royal family raised the issue about the color of unborn baby Archie's skin would be while she was pregnant.

Williams started the message by writing that Meghan is her "selfless friend" that "lives her life - and leads by example - with empathy and compassion. She teaches me every day what it means to be truly noble. Her words illustrated the pain and cruelty she's experienced."

Williams went on to write that she knows "first hand the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of color to minimize us, to break us down and demonize us. We must recognize our obligation to decry malicious, unfounded gossip and tabloid journalism. The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimization are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal." Williams also had a wish for her daughter and Meghan's daughter moving forward.

"I want Megan's daughter, my daughter and your daughter to live in a society that is driven by respect," she wrote. Keep in your memory the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. Against such things, there is now law."

Meghan told Winfrey there were several "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born." She also said, "That was relayed to me from Harry. Those were conversations that the family had with him." Meghan didn't reveal who was involved in the conversations about Archie's skin tone, adding, "That would be very damaging to them."When Prince Harry joined the interview, he said, "That conversation, I am never going to share. At the time, it was awkward; I was a bit shocked."

Meghan also talked about the abuse she received from the media. She revealed that media was "almost unsurvivable," and she "just didn't see a solution." And when Meghan realized that she "wasn't being protected," she then revealed: "I didn't want to be alive anymore." Williams and Meghan reportedly first met in 2010 at a party celebrating the Super Bowl; the two became good friends and after that, and Williams attended Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018.