Serena and Venus Williams’ childhood home, where she learned to play tennis, will be seized to settle her stepmother’s $600,000 debt after her bankruptcy petition failed.
It’s the latest development in a years-long legal saga surrounding Williams’ ex-mother-in-law, Lakeisha Williams, and the $1.4 million Palm Beach home.
The former stripper racked up debts from a failed trucking and “fast food and frivolity” business, according to legal documents seen by The Sun, after splitting from the tennis stars’ father, Richard Williams , in 2017.
She filed for bankruptcy multiple times to avoid paying her debts, but her latest bid fell through, meaning the Williamses’ childhood home is about to be sold to pay for everything.
The four-bedroom, 10-acre plot, now in ruins, has a garden tennis court where Richard coached his daughters.
Serena Williams’ childhood home, where she learned to play tennis, will be seized to settle her stepmother’s $600,000 debts.
It’s the latest development in a years-long legal saga surrounding Williams’ ex-mother-in-law, Lakeisha Williams.
Richard, who has suffered several strokes and is battling dementia, moved his third wife Lakeisha into his lavish home in a rural part of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, after their marriage in 2009.
But the couple – who have a son, Dylan – separated in 2017. Williams later filed for divorce, accusing his wife of “stealing” the house, forging his signature to have his name removed from property records , leaving only his name on the documents.
Lakeisha remained in the house after their separation, but the house was foreclosed in 2021 after a lawsuit filed by Miami mortgage lender David Simon.
Since then, it has filed for bankruptcy three times in order to delay the seizure (Chapter 13 of Chapter 13). All bids have now failed.
Lakeisha regularly missed a $10,000-a-month repayment plan owed to lender Simon, with the debt reaching a maximum of $620,000.
Judge Mindy Mora reportedly rejected her third bankruptcy bid without prejudice, meaning she will lose the court’s protection and the house will be sold.
The majority of the proceeds from the sale will be used to pay his debt to Simon, with some of the money shared among 20 other creditors.
Richard Williams, 80, married Lakeisha Williams, his third wife, 37 years younger, in 2009. They separated in 2017 and have a nine-year-old son, Dylan.
It was in this house that “King” Richard transformed his daughters Venus and Serena into tennis champions. Photographed in 1991
Richard bought the house in 1995 for $355,000 with Venus and Serena’s mother, his ex-wife Oracene Price, as a training camp for future stars.
He built two tennis courts and tirelessly coached his then-teenage daughters to become sporting celebrities through his one-on-one coaching duties. Williams and Oracene divorced in 2002.
In 2022 bankruptcy filings seen by DailyMail.com, among other debts, Lakeisha said she owes the Palm Beach County tax collector $2,697.55 for 2021 property taxes and the IRS 7 $600.
Lakeisha also listed total assets of $682,923.43 according to the newspapers.
Of that, $588,197 is the house, which she said is the “current value of the entire property,” although real estate websites value it at around $1.4 million.
Despite all the debts and the plea for financial leniency, Lakeisha said her monthly income was $15,972.93.
This includes $9,671.73 reported under net income from rental property or business, $5,500 from “alimony payments” and $801 from Social Security.
Her monthly expenses are a much more modest $2,542, leaving her with $13,430.73 according to the documents.
Lakeisha’s reported income stands in stark contrast to her apparent financial problems and the dilapidated state of the beautiful Williams home where she still lives.
DailyMail.com visited the vast pile in 2022, located at the end of a tracked road in an exclusive community dominated by large, immaculate equestrian properties, it immediately seems out of place.
Instead of the pristine property lines maintained by neighbors, the entrance has a chipped metal gate and a dirty, dilapidated white fence.
Two ponds sit on either side of the dirt driveway, with a plastic chair thrown into one.
The once imposing white double front door now shows significant rust, while the gable end of the building above them is collapsing.
Lakeisha stayed in the house after her own breakup with Williams. But the house was foreclosed on in 2021 after a lawsuit filed by Miami mortgage lender David Simon and was scheduled to be sold at auction on February 18 of this year.
Lakeisha says the couple has been back together since August 2019 and since then there has been “no discovery, no mediation and no real activity” in the divorce proceedings
Clearly visible from the front of the house, the tennis courts where Serena, 40, and Venus, 41, perfected their astonishing talents, offer a sad spectacle.
They are surrounded by overgrown grass and only one appears playable. Even there, there are rusty floodlights and a falling, torn net.
A neighbor we spoke to pointed to the house and said: “It would never be in this condition if Richard was still here. He loved this place.
The neighbor added: “Richard is a wonderful man. I wouldn’t hear a word against him. We had been neighbors for many years. Serena and Venus were just kids to me, not superstars.
A previous attempt by Lakeisha to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, in 2021, failed because the home was deemed uninsurable due to the need for a new roof.
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