Paris Restaurant Responds To Serena Williams Complaining It ‘Denied’ Her Service

Retired tennis pro Serena Williams claims she was denied service at a restaurant in a Paris hotel, but a rep for the establishment says that’s not exactly what happened.

Williams, 42, shared her version of events in a post on X. “Yikes @PeninsulaParis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids,” she wrote on Monday, August 5. “Always a first. #Olympic2024.”

After the athlete posted the complaint, a Community Notes update was added: “Serena was not ‘denied access.’ Rather, the restaurant was fully booked.”

Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places ???? but never with my kids. Always a first. ????#Olympic2024 pic.twitter.com/lEGJR5WoEn

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 5, 2024

A spokesperson from The Peninsula Paris also reacted to Williams’ accusations.

“Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved,” the restaurant’s official account posted to X on Monday. 

“We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris,” a follow-up post said.

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One restaurant employee explained the situation in a statement to Variety. “When [Williams] came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” Maxime Mannevy told the outlet. “My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”

The hotel also issued a statement to Today on the situation.

“In response to Mrs. Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests; we can only reiterate our deepest apologies for her perception of tonight’s situation,” it said.

The statement added, “Today, August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed unfortunately fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved tonight. She has always and will always be more than welcome with her family to The Peninsula.”