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Close your eyes and picture all the things you’ve done to make your partner happy. Got it? Good. Now look at this Instagram post from Alexis Ohanian — husband of tennis icon Serena Williams — and try not to feel like everything you’ve ever done pales in comparison.
The co-founder of Reddit and the venture capital fund Initialized Capital made headlines this week for making “all the other husbands look bad” by flying Williams to Venice on a whim.
“She wanted Italian for dinner, so…” he wrote alongside photos of the couple in a Venetian gondola.
She wanted Italian for dinner, so…
A post shared by Alexis Ohanian Sr. (@alexisohanian) on
By now, you’re probably pissed at Ohanian for showing you up in the “amazing husband” department. Well, don’t get angry at him just yet: To hear Ohanian tell it to MensHealth.com, he didn’t exactly fly Williams to Italy five minutes after an off-hand comment about fresh gnocchi.
“The way I glibly put it on Instagram made it seem way more spontaneous than it was,” Ohanian told MensHealth.com on Tuesday, at the launch of 1850 Brand Coffee’s Bold Pioneer contest for aspiring entrepreneurs. (If you’ve got a big idea, you can enter to win $18,500 and a mentoring session with Ohanian himself — click here for contest rules.)
“I want to be accurate here — it was not that spontaneous, but all the other components were true,” Ohanian said. “I did organize, set up, and pay for this trip for us to take, and it was based on a conversation about wanting real Italian food.”
Though Williams’ tennis career has taken her all over the world, “she’s never really traveled,” Ohanian explained. As one of the greatest athletes of all time, Williams spends most of her time abroad traveling between her hotel, the tournament space, and the gym.
“To be able to go away for a week in Italy like a tourist, and just spend time as a family, was actually an indulgence,” Ohanian said.
Last night was a blur.
A post shared by Alexis Ohanian Sr. (@alexisohanian) on
Okay, so the seemingly-spontaneous Italian sojourn was planned in advance. Still, Ohanian seems to have the marriage thing on lock (see: his attempts to flirt with Williams while they’re both working out), so we asked him what advice he has for regular guys who are also looking to put all the other boyfriends and husbands out there to shame.
“It’s funny, because there’s the stuff that obviously goes viral … but really, I think the most romantic stuff I’ve ever done for my wife is the stuff that we would never post on social,” he said, “mostly because it’s just sort of boring.”
“It’s just us being together … spending quality time as a husband and a father,” he continued. “It’s not something you’re going to get a bunch of retweets for, but that’s the thing that I actually really believe matters the most, and that you don’t need a bunch of money for.” He added that when he and Williams are together, especially after being apart for a long time, he puts off looking at his phone and answering emails.
That’s not to say he doesn’t take pride in an occasional extravagant gesture — like the time he commissioned a series of incredible billboards to welcome Williams back to tennis after she gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia.
“I do a few grandiose things here and there, and I keep my relationship bank account in a good position.”
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