Richard Dove Williams, Jr is a former tennis coach and father of Venus and Serena Williams. Richard’s family was from Shreveport, Louisiana, but he relocated to California following his graduation from college. His life was the subject of the award-winning film King Richard starring Will Smith. While the film covers his life as he raises his daughters to prominence in the tennis world, his real-life story continues on today. The now 80-year-old man was recently in the news after it was revealed that he was having some trouble with the historic mansion he raised his girls in.
Richard Williams has been married three times. His first marriage was to Betty Johnson after initially arriving in Los Angeles in the ’60s. They married in 1965 and shared five children, including Sabrina, Richard III, Ronner, Reluss, and Reneeka, who were raised alongside Betty’s other daughter, Katrina, from a previous relationship. Richard and Betty divorced in 1973. In 1979 he met his second wife, Oracene “Brandy” Price. Price already had three daughters from a previous relationship. They tied the knot in 1980 and had two daughters, Venus and Serena Williams. Richard and Oracene would divorce in 2002. Richard’s last marriage was to grocery store owner Lakeisha Juanita Graham. The duo met and married in 2010 and welcomed one child together, a son.
In 2017, Richard filed for divorce from Lakeisha Graham. The tennis dad claimed that Graham had been stealing money from him, forging his signature, and cashing his social security checks without his knowledge. he alleged that Graham was attempting to steal property from him and had taken out several vehicles in his name. Richard also said that Lakeisha was dating another man, someone with a shady criminal history who had become a danger to her and their son. Lakeisha’s lawyers fired back, stating that Richard fabricated these lies to avoid paying child support and alimony in their split.
Richard has been dealing with declining health in recent years and suffered several strokes during his divorce. He had one in 2016 prior to splitting with Lakeisha and two in 2022. He was also rumored to be suffering from dementia and brain damage. However, in May of 2022, these reports were said to be false following some shocking revelations about Richard’s sex life. The 80-year-old is reportedly still active with estranged wife Lakeisha, and the two are said to get it on regularly. One of his kids also revealed that dad drove to his house on Oscar day to celebrate Will Smith’s historic win for portraying him in King Richard’s film. “Wow, that doesn’t sound like someone who’s had two strokes; come on, he doesn’t even have dementia! I’m done with playing like that. He needs to stop playing all the time.”
Whatever the status of their intimate life is, the divorce between Richard and Lakeisha is still very real and in process. Lakeshia has been racking up legal fees that she has yet to cover. King Richard’s estranged wife forged his signature to take out a mortgage on the property and accused of blowing it on fast food and a company she launched – that has since failed. As a result, the historic mansion in which Richard trained his future tennis legend daughters is currently up for auction. The property is valued at 1.4 million and will be sold in August to paid to Lakeisha’s legal fees.
According to The Sun, “Most of the proceeds of the sale will go to “hard lender” David Simon, who loaned Serena’s stepmom $255,000 after she allegedly faked Richard’s signature to remortgage the property and blew it on fast food and a failed trucking business.”
