World tennis star, Serena Williams‘ dad and trainer, Richard Williams reportedly suffered a stroke just days before his daughters battled to Wimbledon glory last weekend.
Serena won her 22nd Grand Slam at the weekend, equaling the second all-time record before going on to win the doubles with older sister, Venus, but they both kept the news to themselves.
Richard, 74, was reportedly released from hospital last week following the stroke but has been left with memory issues. He is however finding it hard to come to terms with his new health status, according to his third wife, Lakeisha.
READ: Serena Williams wins 7th Wimbledon title, matches second all-time Grand Slam record
‘His mind is telling him that since he was once in charge of his life, after what’s happened he’s not accepting it,’ she told RadarOnline. ‘To him he’s a normal person – nothing happened to him.’
‘His condition is fair – he’s up and walking around but he’s not at 100 per cent,’ Lakeisha said.
37-year-old Lakeisha who is just a year older than Venus and has a three-year-old son, Dylan with Richard, says the former tennis trainer is refusing therapy as he refuses to accept he is ill.
‘He needs speech therapy, psychological therapy and physical therapy but for now he refused,’ she said.
‘His mind is thinking that they’re going to put him back in “prison”, which is what he calls the hospital.’
Richard Williams is known to have trained his world ranked daughters as early as the age of four and continued to do so until his health began to deteriorate.
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