HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JULY 11: Serena Williams speaks onstage during the 2024 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 11, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Originally appeared on E! Online
Serena Williams is serving up heat at the 2024 ESPY Awards.
The tennis champion was not afraid to put Harrison Butker on blast as she hosted the annual sports award show at Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre July 11. (See all the red carpet fashion here.)
While discussing impressive feats performed by female athletes on stage with sister Venus Williams and presenter Quinta Brunson, she took a dig at the Kansas City Chiefs kicker, who recently faced backlash for controversial comments he made about women in a Benedictine College commencement speech.
"Enjoy women’s sports, they’re just like other sports," Venus told the audience, prompting Serena to chime in, "Except you Harrison Butker."
She added, "We don't need you."
Butker was in attendance at the ceremony. However, the cameras did not capture his reaction.
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But the jabs didn't stop there. After Venus showed her approval by snapping her fingers in the air, Quinta added with a deadpan expression, "At all. Like, ever."
Serena isn't the only celeb to speak out after Butker's eyebrow-raising remarks, which included suggesting to the female grads that they "are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world."
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In May, Maria Shriver questioned "what point was Harrison Butker really trying to make to women in his graduation speech about their present day life choices?"
"Did he really want them, aka us, to believe that our lives truly only begin when we lean into the vocation of wife and mother?" she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Look, everyone has the right to free speech in our country. That's the benefit of living in a democracy. But those of us who are women and who have a voice have the right to disagree with Butker."
Meanwhile, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said there were "certain things that he said that I don't necessarily agree with."
"But I understand the person that he is," he noted, "and he is trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction."
