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America Ferrera Welcomes First Child With Husband Ryan Piers Williams


Congratulations are in order for America Ferrera, who has given birth to her first child with husband Ryan Piers Williams. The couple made the announcement on Instagram, uploading a close-up pic of their baby’s tiny foot and giving the post an adorable caption. “When 2 become 3…Welcome Sebastian Piers Williams – aka [sic] Baz! Mom, Dad, and Baby are happy, healthy and totally in love!” they wrote on their respective accounts.

Ferrera and Williams, who married in 2011, announced they were expecting a baby on New Year’s Eve. “We’re welcoming one more face to kiss in 2018! Wishing you #MásBesos in the New Year!,” wrote Ferrera under a photo of the two wearing 2018-themed party glasses and holding up a baby onesie that said “Más Besos (por favor)” or “more kisses (please)” in Spanish. Meanwhile, Williams captioned his post, “Making room for new and beautiful things to come in 2018!”

Since then, Ferrera has been prepping for motherhood with the help of her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, and Amber Tamblyn. “They are a go-to for me, just one message away and I ask them a million questions. Everything from trying to wrap my mind around the actual birth to talking about what their experiences were and what to prepare for,” she told Us Weekly in April. “I’m so lucky that I have so many amazing women around me. Having their support has been everything.”

In January, the actress shared a baby bump pic featuring her Sisterhood sisterhood rubbing her belly. “Starting the New Year off with blessings from my Sisterhood. We’ve got work to do for the next generation. Let’s get to it. #TIMESUP,” she wrote.

Tamblyn was also instrumental in planning one of Ferrera’s baby showers alongside the actress’s friend Tamara. “Baby showers are for practicing. So insanely grateful for the village of women I have in my life who have shown up to love, support and celebrate (all of me) in style as I transition into motherhood,” Ferrera captioned a photo featuring Tamblyn pumping her fist while she and Tamara posed inside a cardboard vagina. “Boundless gratitude to my boos @todaytamara [and] @amberrosetamblyn for planning a magical and powerful celebration. And to @samlooksatthis for the gorgeous vagina.”

Related: America Ferrera Just Wrote a Powerful Letter to Her Body on Her 33rd Birthday



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Michelle Williams Literally Sent Busy Philipps a Cardboard Cut-Out of Herself


The best thing about having a best friend is they always know just how to cheer you up. Such is the case for celebrity besties Busy Philipps and Michelle Williams, who have been by each other’s sides since their days on the timeless teen drama Dawson’s Creek. Philipps is currently recovering from surgery, and on Thursday (May 24), she took to her Instagram feed to show her followers how dedicated Williams is to keeping her company while she’s on the mend—even when she can’t physically keep her pal company.

“Guys my friend came to visit me because I had surgery,” Philipps joked in her Instagram Story before panning over to a very realistic-looking lifesize cardboard cutout of Williams wearing a flouncy floral dress and a pair of oversize sunglasses. “DEAD,” Philipps captioned the shot. In another clip, Philipps casually catches up on some work while Cardboard Michelle Williams watches over her. And in a third clip, in which Philipps can’t stop laughing, she confirms that Cardboard Michelle is so realistic she’s even the same height as the IRL Williams.

Philipps also posted a selfie of her replacement friend keeping an eye on her over her shoulder. “Michelle sent me a life size cardboard cut out of herself to keep me company while I recover and it’s so hilarious and also keeps scaring me when I come into the room, which is also kind of hilarious. Truly one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten.??????,” she captioned the shot.

Though the cutout is truly hilarious, it’s also completely in character for the duo, who are quick to be at each other’s sides when needed. “She’s been there for me, and I’ve been there for her,” Philipps said of her 15-year friendship with Williams in a recent interview with Popsugar. “And she gives the best advice and makes me feel better about things, and I hope I do the same for her.”

The pair met while playing Jen (Williams) and Audrey (Philipps) on Dawson’s Creek, and have been permanent fixtures in each other’s lives ever since. “Michelle is kind of an easy person to fall in love with, and anyone who knows her will tell you that, but we just really genuinely have a lot in common,” Philipps, who recently flew across the country to be by Williams’ side on the tenth anniversary of ex Heath Ledger’s death, told Popsugar. “At the core, we have been so close for so many years for a reason, which is the same reason why anyone is close with anyone else, because we have a very a commonality and a shared sensibility and we just love each other.”

Related: Busy Philipps Is Getting Her Own Late-Night Talk Show, and It’s a Big Deal



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Serena Williams Not Seeded At French Open After Giving Birth


When three-time French Open winner Serena Williams returns to Grand Slam tennis next week, the top competitor will face a mother of a battle.

After 14 months off the court to recover not just from childbirth, but from near fatal complications that kept her bedridden for six weeks, Williams will compete in the French Open, dropped from her previous rank of No. 1 down to No. 453. The decision could compel Williams to face her most serious rivals at the start of the competition, an unexpected elimination risk for the 23-time Grand Slam winner who was ranked No. 1 in the world after she won the Australian Open while pregnant in 2017. (Yes, while pregnant.)

“This year again, tournament officials will establish the list and ranking of the women’s seeds based on the WTA ranking,” the French Tennis Federation said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Consequently, [the seeds] will reflect this week’s world ranking.”

And in this week’s world ranking, Williams is No. 453.

This isn’t bad luck for Williams or a simple blameless blunder in the rules. Make no mistake: officials at the French Open have opted to overlook Williams’ circumstances, despite the protestations of even Williams’ rivals.

At the Italian Open last week, Maria Sharapova, who’s lost three Grand Slam finals to Williams, said that she’d “like to see that [rule] change.”

“It’s such an incredible effort for a woman to come back from physically, emotionally,” Sharapova said, adding that motherhood adds “another whole dimension to the travel, to the experiences, to the emotions, to the physicality of every single day.” If a woman wants to take that on, Sharapova seemed to suggest, she shouldn’t be set back for it.

Elina Svitolina, who won the Italian Open, also wanted to see Williams seeded this week. Simona Halep put it in the plainest possible terms: “It’s normal to give birth. It’s normal to have protected ranking.” This, she continued, “is more than tennis.”

In the meantime, some technical rules have been bent to accommodate her. Williams is able to compete in Paris at Roland Garros because the Women’s Tennis Association at least does have a “special ranking rule,” which allows competitors to use a previous ranking to enter up to eight tournaments within 12 months of their return from childbirth or other serious injuries. But the fact that the WTA doesn’t distinguish between genuine impairments and the birth of an infant speaks to just how much ground the tour needs to cover to meet the modern needs of its participants.

While it’s true that women have tended to retire from the sport before children, more and more of them have decided not to put off motherhood to finish competition. As USA Today notes, Kim Clijsters won three of her four majors after the birth of her first child. And Sania Mirza, who’s won three Grand Slam titles in doubles, has said she will return to the court after she delivers in October.

Since she delivered her daughter in September, Williams has “had to rebuild her body,” her coach Patrick Mouratoglou told the WTA tour website. And while she’s entered two events since then (at Indian Wells and the Miami Open), Mouratoglou explained that the French Open is the real return. “Serena will play the French Open to win it”—no matter how arduous the climb back to the top.

The draw for the French Open is set for later this week, and competition will start over the weekend. In at least one respect, Williams continues to be treated like the record breaker she is. She tweeted on Monday that she’d been tested for the second time this week, despite a standing that wouldn’t seem to demand such concerted attention.

That same afternoon, the WTA said it would reconsider its position on protected seeds for its 2019 season and added that it remains “committed to evolving with the needs of our players and are very supportive of those players returning from maternity leave to the tour.”

When Williams entered the Miami Open, James Blake, its director and a former competitor himself, said that he saw the matter as more straightforward, not a matter for as much deliberation as the WTA seems to feel it needs. “She had a kid, which we should all be celebrating, so when she comes back there should be a grace period where she can still be seeded,” he said.

Instead, he went on, “It’s a kind of punishment, which is tough.”





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Serena Williams on the Pressure of Motherhood: 'I’m Not Always Going to Win'


It’s 8:20 A.M., and I’m sitting with Serena Williams in her office in New York’s NoHo neighborhood. The space she shares with a tech company when she’s in town from Florida is empty, except for her glam squad in the other room. “You don’t mind if I eat breakfast while we talk?” she asks. Multi-tasking is par for the course for the 36-year-old tennis superstar—our interview had already been pushed up so she could squeeze in some court time during her jam-packed press tour.

But if anyone has the stamina for such a day, it’s Williams. This morning, she’s meeting with beauty editors to talk about Embrace, a scar-therapy dressing she’s currently promoting. Yesterday, she did a round of press for an upcoming (secret) project. And tomorrow is the premiere for her new HBO documentary, Being Serena, which chronicles her 23rd Grand Slam singles victory, her wedding, the birth of her daughter Olympia, and rebounding from the life-threatening complications during her delivery—which all happened in the space of one year.

As she wrote in an essay for CNN in February, Williams needed an emergency C-section after her daughter’s heart rate dropped. The surgery went well, but the next day, she had intense coughing caused by a pulmonary embolism (something she’d had a history of), that was so severe her C-section incision opened up again. She alerted nurses immediately and was brought back into surgery, where doctors found a large hematoma, or collection of clotting blood, which meant more operating. The ordeal left her bed-ridden for six weeks.

Now, nearly four months since she first came forward to talk about her experience, Williams is making it her personal mission to raise awareness about the startling maternal mortality rates, as well as the importance of advocating for your own health. Glamour caught up with her to talk about her activism, motherhood, and more.

Glamour: What was the most surprising response to your essay about your pregnancy complications?

Serena Williams: I got so much feedback like, “Wow, this happened to me too” and “thank you so much for speaking out about this; now I feel like I can talk about it.” A lot of people have had a less than positive experience [during pregnancy]. It was really, really shocking. It made me want to talk about it more.

Glamour: What have you been doing since to lead that charge?

SW: Well, education I think is the biggest key. I don’t have time to do too much—between a baby, tennis, and fashion, it’s a lot. But whenever there’s an opportunity to speak or write or post about it, I do. We can reach people directly by taking two minutes out of our day to post about something, you know? So for me, it’s all about educating people, and bringing awareness to the problems that we face during pregnancy, especially minority women.

Glamour: On Facebook, you drew attention to a disturbing statistic that black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women. How did you feel when you learned that?

SW: It’s devastating because that’s me. If I wasn’t who I am, it could have been me—and that’s not fair. Class shouldn’t separate health, and it’s so frustrating to know that [it does]. And the reason I use the word class is because I’m able to afford this opportunity to speak up and say, “No, I need help now!” and people will listen to me. But a lot of African-Americans—and people in Africa, India, or Brazil, to name a few—don’t have that opportunity. It’s completely devastating.

Glamour: Why do you think it is that women—and especially women of color—are so often dismissed when trying to raise concerns about their health?

SW: I don’t know that I have the answer to that. I think that people don’t want to listen to us. Or people think women are so strong that they don’t have to speak up about it. Or maybe it’s that men have never been pregnant, and they don’t understand what the body goes through—even though they can be there for the nine months and the time after. My husband [Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian] was there, but he doesn’t quite understand everything that I went through. And maybe that’s the reason why [male doctors] don’t listen to us when we speak. It’s sad.

Glamour: How are you recovering from the complications?

SW: I’m seven months out, which really isn’t a long time, now that I say it. The pain I felt was incredible. You know, [my doctors] cut me once [for the C-section]. They go deep and move your insides around. Then they had to cut me again because I had a hematoma. So I had an awful scar. I was fortunate enough to wear this Embrace adhesive—it’s a clear dressing that helps with scarring. But it’s all worth it. Olympia’s amazing, and I would do it all again, double.

Glamour: Would you have another child?

SW: Oh, yes. I always say, if I wasn’t working now I would be totally pregnant. I would be like, “What was I thinking?” But I would totally be pregnant right now.

Glamour: What’s one thing you wish you would have known about C-sections before you had one?

SW: I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to walk. I couldn’t get out of bed. Everybody told me [I could lose feeling in my legs], so I was ready for it. But I didn’t know I actually wouldn’t be able to use my muscles to get up and go to the bathroom. My husband literally had to carry me. It was crazy. I went from being this world-class athlete to not being able to roll out of bed or move up and down. To be physically knocked down that hard was pretty rough. Thankfully, the hospital had those high toilets. It was like, well, I can’t bend down, so how am I going to sit down? I really didn’t expect that.

Glamour: What would you say is the most challenging part of being a new mom?

SW: The frustration, and a lot of people don’t talk about it. When the baby starts crying and you don’t know what to do, you get frustrated. I’ve read many articles that say to take deep breaths, and just walk away, then come back. Or to have someone else come help if you can. Because you get frustrated, and you start crying, and you can’t help it. You’re going through stuff emotionally.

That frustration level is really, really intense. Especially for me as a perfectionist, who’s always in control of everything—how I work, my decisions. When there’s nothing I can do to make it right, it’s challenging. I still deal with that sometimes. For example, she was crying the other day, and I was a mess. But, you know, it’s a day at a time.

Glamour: Why were you a mess?

SW: Because she doesn’t cry unless something is wrong, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I would be around her and hold her, and she was fine. But when I walked away, she’d start crying. We couldn’t figure it out, and she literally didn’t sleep all day. It was hard for me to see her in pain. That makes me be in pain.

Glamour: What do you do when you’re feeling frustrated in those moments?

SW: Well, now it’s different. She’s older and I have more experience, so the frustration isn’t really as hard now; it’s more the pressure. I feel like I’m against a clock, and that could just be my thing because I’m an athlete. When I’m on the court and losing, I have to find a way to turn the match around. I’ve done it a million times. So now [with motherhood], I’m trying to find a way to win, so to speak. That is what my challenge is. And sometimes I have to accept that she’s going to have bad days, and I’m not always going to win, but it’s long-term. It’s different for me. I’m making my way there, and I’m learning.

Glamour: I think a lot of moms feel that pressure to be “perfect.”

SW: Yeah, you don’t have to be. But no matter what I’ve heard, and no matter how many times people have told me, “You don’t have to be perfect,” and I say, “I know that,” every time [I still feel I] have to be perfect. It’s just what us moms do, which makes me respect moms so much. My mom, and all the women out there who have done it before, I’m just like, “Wow, you guys are amazing.”

Glamour: What hopes do you have about raising a daughter in the #MeToo era?

SW: I hope that she becomes strong enough and knows enough to speak up—or at least tell me, or her dad, or her grandmother, and her aunt if anything is going wrong—and not be afraid. We have all these amazing women speaking out, and I feel like the examples these women are providing will give her the knowledge to know “this isn’t okay; that’s not normal if I’m treated this way,” and to speak out on it. That way it doesn’t affect the girl behind her or next to her.

Glamour: Do you have any worries about if she becomes an athlete, especially considering all the #MeToo stories coming out in the sporting world?

SW: I’d be concerned about who I put her with. I would have to be there a lot. But then again, it doesn’t matter if you’re there or not. Parents were there [when Larry Nassar abused gymnasts]. Parents even spoke out. So the only thing I hope is that what’s happening with this movement continues. It’s going to take a long time to create change, and hopefully people will listen. Hopefully this will help people start to listen more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and condensed.





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Serena Williams Offers Some Wedding Advice to Her Good Friend Meghan Markle


We’re just about three weeks away from the big royal wedding and the final details are falling into place. Kensington Palace has officially confirmed what we already assumed: Prince William will serve as best man to his little brother Prince Harry. The music for the ceremony is set. And at long last, we’re starting to hear more about who will actually be in attendance. Yesterday, Meghan Markle’s friend, actress Priyanka Chopra, confirmed that she will be there to witness the vows on May 19.

Now another of Markle’s good pals, Serena Williams, is speaking out about the royal nuptials. In an interview with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts, Williams played coy about whether or not she’ll be donning a fascinator to watch Markle walk down the aisle. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it’s during one of the tournaments, so we’ll see if I can make it.” She then jokingly chastised Roberts, “Robin, don’t be asking me them questions!” (The French Open begins the Monday after the royal wedding.)

Williams did, however, have some advice for the bride-to-be: “I just think it’s so important to enjoy the moment. And eat the cake—I didn’t get to eat mine at the wedding. We were just having so much fun!” She continued, “If I could give her any advice it would just be to enjoy the preparation and enjoy the planning. It just goes so fast.”

Williams obviously knows a thing or two about planning a high-profile wedding. She married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in a lavish New Orleans ceremony last year with a French ball meets Beauty and the Beast theme. The guest list included people many would consider American royalty from Beyoncé to Kim Kardashian West. She even chose a royal-adjacent dress designer. Markle’s soon-to-be sister in law also wore Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen when she wed Prince William seven years ago.

Fingers crossed we see Serena across the pond in a few weeks.



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'2 Dope Queens' Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams: Men Are Finally Realizing Life Isn't a Buffet


Once upon a time, comedian and author Phoebe Robinson used to write Scandal recaps for Glamour.com. Today, though, she’s sitting in a swanky hotel room with her BFF and 2 Dope Queens co-host Jessica Williams to promote their new HBO specials. “It’s a dream, it really is,” Robinson says. “I feel like Barack Obama when he was inaugurated, even though that’s not accurate.”

Robinson might be joking, but it’s an appropriate analogy given that 2 Dope Queens started as a grassroots podcast years earlier. “It’s just nuts,” she says. “It’s so cool.” Tonight, HBO debuts the first of four hour-long specials focused on Blerds (Black Nerds), Hot Peen, New York, and Hair. Robinson and Williams have also recruited famous friends like Sarah Jessica Parker, Uzo Aduba, Jon Stewart, and Tituss Burgess to join them, in addition to unknown comedians looking to follow in the duo’s footsteps. Says Williams, “It’s a showcase for those talents, and I don’t think you really see that right now in this TV or comedy landscape.”

But before you watch Robinson and Williams take the stage, the friends opened up to Glamour about their journey, Hollywood’s shifting culture, and what it really means to support other women.

Some people must think you got your own show on HBO pretty effortlessly and skyrocketed to fame, but it’s never that simple. What are some of the unspoken truths to get to where you are?

Phoebe Robinson: Even before we had our podcast, we started out at [improv troupe] United Citizens Brigade East, and I had an email list where I tell people to come to the show. [We also had our podcast, 2 Dope Queens, but] podcasts don’t make a lot of money. They are truly a labor of love, so we were just promoting and spreading the word. We eventually got to bigger venues, but it was a lot of hard work. It looks super fun and easy because…

Jessica Williams: Obviously, we’re fashion queens. We look cute! We have our wigs together.

Phoebe: [Laughs] Yeah. But at the end of the day, it is about the work, long hours, and making a lot of decisions. This is cool doing the press, but it took years to get to this point.

Jessica: And it’s doing shows when you’re in a bad mood or you don’t feel like doing it, but you have to show up. You end up having fun, but no matter what happens it’s doing the mental work to make sure we’re in the right mindset so that we always get the good show. People ask you where your progress comes from, and really it’s like a seed in the ground. You water it and all the while it’s growing and then finally after many, many years the tree starts to grow. That’s kind of our story.

Phoebe: Wow.

Jessica: Was that too goofy?

Phoebe: Did you just text Gwyneth [Paltrow] and ask her what you should say?

Jessica: I’m like, “Gwynie…” but no, there’s something about you plant a seed and you wait for a long time. It doesn’t mean that it’s not growing.

Phoebe: Not to be cheesy, but I really do feel like the end result is not the goal. It’s learning and it’s the journey about how to be producers, how to edit, and having fun in that, because now the product is here, and we don’t know how people are going to react to it. We hope that people love it and everybody goes…

Jessica: There could be massive protests.

Phoebe: [Laughs] Yeah, but Michael Fassbender could call me and be like, “I just watched the episode, and I thought it was really funny.”

Jessica: Or Daniel Radcliffe reaches out to me on Twitter and is like, “I love the specials!” I’d be like, “LOL. Thank you.”

Phoebe: And Bono could text me and be like, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t the music supervisor on the specials.”

Jessica: And I’d jump in and be like, “Excuse me, Bono, that wasn’t an offer.”

Phoebe: But the journey we’ve been on is truly the biggest reward.

I overheard you tell another journalist that these specials are not like any other we’ve seen. How so?

Jessica: This show is not like any other because it’s two black ladies saying whatever the hell we want to and enjoying each other. Not only that, but we also have stand-up [comedians] in these specials that are either people of color, or women, or members of the LGBTQ community, so it kind of is…and we have a few white guys.

Phoebe: Just two max.

Jessica: Two max.

Phoebe: Oh wait, three. ‘Cause Jon Stewart.

Jessica: Oh yeah, I guess he counts. So it’s sort of a showcase for those talents, and I don’t think you really see that right now in this TV or comedy landscape, so we’re excited to present that.

PHOTO: Mindy Tucker/HBO

Let’s talk about celebrity culture, and the shift that’s happening in Hollywood. What are your thoughts on the impact of #MeToo and Time’s Up?

Phoebe: Gabrielle Union spoke to this, which I love, and it’s that she hopes all women stories and voices are going to be heard, instead of the select [few] of a certain class, of a certain race. I think what’s great right now is that people won’t continue ignoring swaths of people and hope that the problem is going to go away.

Jessica: For a lot of actresses, their careers were dependent on previously the favor of a man. I think it really hinged on a lot of superficial things, or whether they would put out. It just, I think, hinged on the whims of men, so what I’m really excited about with this movement is that it takes away a lot of their power, at least I hope it does. I’m really happy for the women that have had to be in this industry for that long and go through that. A lot of them felt like they had to be silent because it wasn’t the right time. I think now, especially with the power of social media, the time is right. It’s the right time and place to have this conversation. But it makes me sad to think about what they were going through before then. I also think that all movements take time, but I just couldn’t imagine coming up in the industry at that time and not having an outlet…I mean, there were women that were completely blackballed probably that we will never know because of that situation. The fact that we can have something like the Golden Globes and sit up there and roast everybody for sexual harassment is really awesome. So I’m really proud of this.

Phoebe: I think what’s good is that men are now realizing that life is not a buffet where you just get to pick and choose whatever you want.

Jessica: It’s not Sizzler.

Phoebe: It’s not Sizz; it’s not Cici’s Pizza. [Laughs]

Jessica: Where you can grab whatever salad you want or chicken nuggets.

Phoebe: Or whatever pie you want. So, I think it’s good that men are starting to ask these questions. Men are now starting to think, “I should be thinking before I act. I should be thinking before I say something.” I think that that’s great that men are starting to finally look at [themselves]. I’m hoping that going forward, men are going to keep looking at themselves the way that we as women look at ourselves, every day, analyzing every thought, every movement, our safety, not saying the wrong thing because we don’t want to be labeled difficult or bossy or mean, and all the pressure we face.Men are now starting to realize, “I need to check my behavior first.” I think that’s great.

Lastly, I love how close of friends you are, which brings me to the fact that at a time when everyone says you have to support other women, no one tells you the specifics behind that notion. So how do you each support each other?

Phoebe: Whenever we both have a project coming out, we’ll post about it [for the other] on social media. When I wrote on Portlandia, Jessica sent me a nice bottle of champagne when I was in L.A. It was a really nice thing.

Jessica: Phoebe is very thoughtful about things, too. She’s even sent my mother flowers!

Phoebe: I love sending flowers! It’s the best.

Jessica: Yeah, it’s like friendship romantic things that keep putting emotional deposits in the other person’s piggy bank. That’s something my mom taught me.

PHOTO: Mindy Tucker/HBO



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