Alexis Ohanian finally had the opportunity to jokingly get his lick back at Stephen A. Smith on First Take over previous comments the ESPN analyst made about his marriage to Serena Williams.
The Reddit co-founder playfully called him out after Smith, 57, registered his displeasure with Williams, 44, after she made a cameo during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show performance in February. The retired tennis star was seen crip walking on stage as Kendrick performed his diss song to Drake, Not Like Us.
Williams and Drake were previously romantically involved, and some people thought she made the unexpected appearance to throw shade at the Canadian artist.
“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,” Smith said on First Take in February.
It appears that Ohanian was waiting for a moment to publicly address Smith over the comments that he made about his wife, and he got that chance during First Take’s Thursday episode. Ohanian, 42, appeared on the show to talk about his all-women’s professional track meet event in New York City, Sports Illustrated reported.
“Also Stephen A. Smith I think you had some marriage advice for me, is that right?” Ohanian asked Smith on the show.
“Headlines are headlines, we can get into that another time,” Smith responded. “Oh no, I am not qualified. Marital advice? Oh no, not me.”
“You haven’t been married before right?” Ohanian then 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.”
The pair’s back and forth was swiftly ended by MJ Acosta Ruiz as she cut to commercial. Williams, in a previous interview for Time‘s Time100, opened up about her appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show and denied she was trolling Drake when she was asked if that was the case.
“Absolutely not,” Williams replied. “I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that.”
Williams added: “Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We’ve known him for so many years.”
“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
