Tennis great Serena Williams has opened up about her incredible weight-loss journey, revealing that she lost 31 pounds with the help of a GLP-1 medication. 

The 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed in interviews with People magazine and "Today" that she turned to a GLP-1 medication after struggling with her health following the birth of her second daughter.  

"In particular after having my second kid, I was never able to be at a healthy weight that I could be at, whether it was my joints or blood sugar levels. It was just always something I suffered with and a lot of women actually go through this," Williams said during an appearance on "Today" Thursday. 

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Williams, 43, said that despite being a trained athlete, she struggled to lose weight regardless of how active she was. She said it began to take a toll on her joints. 

"No matter what I did — running, walking, I would walk for hours because they say that's good, I literally was playing a professional sport — and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different."

Williams said she decided to be open about her journey in order to destigmatize the use of GLP-1 medication for weight loss.  

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"A misconception is that it's a shortcut," she told "Today." "As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn't get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place — and believe me, I don't take shortcuts."

Williams told People magazine separately that despite her new look, her confidence level has never wavered. Her decision to make a change was based on something entirely different. 

"I've never felt that pressure to maintain a certain appearance," she said. "I always felt comfortable at any size, whether I was a lot heavier or not. I do feel like my body didn't like me at that weight. I had pain in my joints and pain in different areas just because of the extra weight that I'm not used to carrying since I had children."

"But the size I was before, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just not what I wanted to have. I just knew that I wanted to be where I personally felt comfortable."

GLP-1s, also known as GLP-1 agonists, are a type of drug that mimics a natural hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 that helps to regulate blood sugar levels.

Fox News Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump warned California and Gov. Gavin Newsom about the state’s transgender policies as a new issue popped up in high school girls’ volleyball earlier this month.

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez has been playing girls’ volleyball for the Jurupa Valley High School team months after creating a stir in track and field. Riverside Poly High School announced its team would forfeit instead of playing against Jurupa Valley.

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The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)’s gender-participation policies have been at the forefront of the controversy. While the organization amended some of its policies when it came to track and field, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the CIF and the California Department of Education (CDE) over biological males continue to compete against females. The policy countered Trump’s executive order, which he signed in February.

"Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Newsom’s office responded to a request for comment.

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"If it’s a day ending in y, President Trump is attacking kids’ safety, health, and access to education as part of his culture war," Newsom spokesperson Elana Ross told Fox News Digital.

Transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports is an issue that doesn’t appear to be going away despite Trump’s "No Men in Women’s Sports" executive order.

California is one of a handful of states that has yet to change their policies to adhere to the switch. The Kern County Board of Education changed its own policies recently in defiance of the state’s policy.

Newsom has previously said the CDE and CIF are following laws the state enacted in 2013 but has repeatedly said he believes males competing in girls’ sports is "unfair."

"I struggled with the issue of fairness when it came to sports," Newsom said in response to the lawsuit at a July event. "And we tried to figure that out a couple of years ago, and we were unsuccessful. And we struggled with that recently.

"And my position is that I don’t think it’s fair, but I also think it’s demeaning to talk down to people and to belittle the trans community. And I don’t like the way the right wing talks about the trans community. These people just want to survive."

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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