The Paris restaurant that allegedly denied service to Serena Williams and her family has revealed the real reason for doing so.
Earlier this week Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion, publicly criticized The Peninsula Hotel in Paris for allegedly denying her family access to its rooftop restaurant, despite claiming that the venue was empty.
The star athlete took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent about the ordeal, slamming the establishment for its lack of hospitality.
“Yikes,” Williams tweeted alongside a photo of the restaurant’s sign. “@peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in an empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first.”
Have a look at the post below:
Now just days after the tweet went viral, the restaurant has issued its own counter-statement explaining why 42-year-old and her children were turned away.
“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,” read the company’s first reply on Monday.
“We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again. The Peninsula Paris,” a second post followed.
A “context” tag has also been applied to Williams’ initial tweet stating: “Serena Williams was not denied a table. The restaurant was fully booked and she was advised that was the case” along with a link to an article by PEOPLE who reported on the incident.
The hotel also echoed a similar message during their statement to TODAY, writing: “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.”
The statement continued: “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,’ they concluded.
The Peninsula Paris said that their rooftop was fully booked at the time Williams arrived. Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty
An employee at Peninsula’s L’Oiseau Blanc establishment spoke with Variety after the incident, stating that her colleague did not recognize Williams and was just doing what she would do with any other client.
Noting that the tennis player looked “unrecognizable”, Maxime Mannevy said: “When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel.
“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,” she added.
Williams has not yet re-addressed the issue after the hotel’s statement.