Serena Williams was shocked when her husband stood down from the Reddit board of directors to give his top job to a black candidate.

The tennis star is married to Reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian and she insists she had nothing to do with his decision to stand down from his top position in the company to do his bit to fight racial inequality.

She said: ''This is all Alexis, which is really cool. A lot of people may think that I told you to do something, or that I forced you, or that I was in your ear ... he doesn't listen to me ever! So that's not the case.''

And the sportswoman - who has Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., two, with her husband - also opened up about her own experiences with racism.

She added: ''I've faced many different challenges. A lot of people don't know, my whole life I've had to deal with so many different challenges. I've had to deal with a lot of inequality, I've had to deal with racism. Honestly, sadly, it has become ... somewhat of a norm for me. It's sad that someone on my level has had to accept being paid less and accept so many different things because of the colour of my skin. I think I'd be very angry, very spiteful, very jealous if I didn't have this spiritual background.''

And both Alexis and Serena are devastated that one day they will have to discuss this topic with their child, as she ''only knows love''.

He said: ''One of the things that really broke me at some point in the last week, was looking at Olympia and she is such a pure blank canvas. She only knows love. There is not an ounce of hate in her body.''

Whilst Serena added on an Instagram Live: ''You know that at some point, Olympia is gonna have a talk with you, a talk with us, but especially a talk with you about how she's gonna have to work that much harder, how she's gonna have to deal with this much more. That p****s me off.''