Serena Williams has said that Prince Harry is her go-to person for life advice. The tennis star, 40, joined forces with her pal, the Duke of Sussex, for a panel discussion on mental health and coaching for BetterUp this week.
Serena Williams Says Prince Harry Is 'Always Solving All My Life's Problems'
Williams and BetterUp's CEO Alexi Robichaux discussed the value of coaching and counseling with Meghan Markle's husband, who is a Chief Impact Officer for the organization.
"It's hard. I’m a terrible loser," Williams said. "When it comes to losing, I even hate that word. Because for me, if I have a loss I learn so much from it."
She explained that "some of my best growth has come from a loss."
"Even when I’m investing in a company, I want to know about your losses," the 23-time Grand Slam winner said.
"If you started a company before, how did you do? Where did you kind of fail at? Because if everything was so good and so clean and so easy, then that doesn’t even build character, you know?"
People can continue to grow and learn from setbacks, Harry added: "If you’re in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, and even your 50s, and you think you’ve got it sorted, then bad stuff’s gonna happen."
"There's a lesson here. There's a lesson I'm being schooled by the universe. There's something in this for me to learn," the royal said.
"So that next time it happens, I become more resilient or better at being able to see a way around it, to be able to achieve the ultimate goal. And if you have that perspective, then every single bad thing that happens ― again, what you perceive to be bad ― actually can be good."
"We don’t mean to take over ― we always have these crazy discussions," Williams cracked a joke as she and Harry continued to converse, which Robichaux didn't seem to mind.
Williams mentioned near the end of the conversation that the Duke had assisted her in finding a mental coach with whom she is still in contact. She went on to say that Harry "always solves" her "life problems."
"I know I joke a lot, but Harry is one of my coaches. Whenever I see him, he's always solving all my life's problems," she added.
Harry's job as chief impact officer, which he started in March of last year, entails holding BetterUp accountable and assisting in its global expansion.
Due to the tennis player's close friendship with the Duchess of Sussex, the two have known each other for some years. They met in 2014 while Markle was appearing in the TV drama series Suits.
