The term "first-world problems" is often used in jest by people facing minor inconveniences in their lives.
And this story is a prime example of a genuine "first-world problem."
Tennis star Serena Williams, who has 23 Grand Slam titles to her name and an estimated net worth of $350 million, was checking into a swanky New York City hotel and found some of the decor not to her liking:
Serena Williams calls out New York hotel for cotton plant décor in corridor — all while wearing a blonde wig pic.twitter.com/ooppLvckny
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) September 26, 2025
Williams, 43, took to social media with a video of the decor, a vase holding a cotton plant on a table in the hallway, and asked her followers for their thoughts about the display. "Alright, everyone. How do we feel about cotton as decoration?"
"Personally for me, it doesn’t feel great," Williams said in her Instagram Stories on Thursday, Sept. 25.
In a second post, the tennis star is speaking to the camera and holding a piece of the cotton used in the decoration. Williams tells viewers it "feels like nail polish remover cotton" and touches it before cringing and exiting the frame.
It's a plant, and probably a fake one, in a hotel that most Americans couldn't afford to set foot in.
Social media was not at all sympathetic to Williams' plant plight:
Dear Serena,
— Zeek Arkham 🇺🇸 (@ZeekArkham) September 26, 2025
I know exactly how you feel. I accidentally cut myself and I got a bag of cotton and some alcohol. I picked one and immediately, I could hear the cries of my ancestors toiling in a field. I fell to the floor, screaming and crying because I could feel their pain.… pic.twitter.com/J53riGOEx5
The entire post reads:
I know exactly how you feel. I accidentally cut myself and I got a bag of cotton and some alcohol. I picked one and immediately, I could hear the cries of my ancestors toiling in a field. I fell to the floor, screaming and crying because I could feel their pain.
Out of nowhere, Harriet Tubman appeared and told me she could get me to freedom. Initially, I expressed confusion because I was in my own house and thought I was already free, but she pointed a musket at me and told me she wasn’t going to jeopardize lives. I agreed.
Anyway, I’m in Canada right now, trying to make my way back to New York. I feel all of your pain, though. Damned cotton!
The dragging continued:
Girl you married to a white man shut up https://t.co/RHceoTRMmg
— goosha (@lilgoosha) September 26, 2025
And in an interesting twist, Page Six reported that there was a time when Williams wasn't so offended by cotton, as she showed off a piece of art in her Florida home:
Serena Williams proudly showed off cotton art piece in Florida home before NYC hotel outrage https://t.co/IyrYnbY8mi pic.twitter.com/nAFqjX44At
— Page Six (@PageSix) September 26, 2025
Here's more:
Serena Williams proudly showed off a cotton art piece in her Florida home before calling out a New York City hotel for displaying a cotton plant decoration.
In their mansion located north of Miami, Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, have a sculpture by Radcliffe Bailey titled “Monument for a Promise,” which the late artist created in 2013.
The steel and concrete structure depicts a donkey carrying a trunk and standing over a mound of cotton, per ARTnews.
As one X user commented, "Who wants to tell Serena Williams her hotel bedsheets are made of cotton, her clothes etc Maybe take that blonde wig off, it’s clearly cutting off oxygen to the brain."
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