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Ah, the meet-cute. It’s when Romeo and Juliet’s eyes locked across a crowded room. When John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale tenderly brushed hands while grabbing the same cashmere gloves at Bloomingdale’s in Serendipity. When Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, sauntered up to the table next to Serena Williams’s in Rome, casually sat down . . . only for her friend to tell him to move because there was a rat.
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Yes, according to an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Williams has the foul rodent to thank for her relationship with the Reddit cofounder. There really weren’t any scurrying around that day—her friend only said that because she thought Ohanian was too close to the star—but it was his nonchalant retort that caused the first spark. “I’m from Brooklyn. I see rats all the time,” Williams remembers him saying. She liked his gumption and invited him to join her. It was only when he sat down that he realized the woman asking about his “rat tolerance” was the best tennis player in the world (we’re going there, John McEnroe). And the sparks were instantaneous.
A year and a half later, Ohanian and Williams went back to Rome, to the same place where they first met. He got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. On the table? A small plastic rat.
What a charming and utterly endearing origin story for the power couple, who announced a few months ago that they were expecting their first child (Williams also discusses in the article how she played in the Australian Open while pregnant). We never thought we’d say this, but . . . roses? Chocolates? Jewelry? No, thank you. We’ll take a meet-cute with the subway creature that haunts our dreams, please.
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