Serena Williams Shares Sad News: Her Father, Richard Williams, Has Passed Away.

Richard Williams, 74, recently suffered a stroke and is experiencing memory loss, having been released from the hospital last week.

“His condition is fair — he’s walking around, but he’s not at 100 percent,” his wife, Lakeisha Williams, told Radar. “He needs speech therapy, psychological therapy and physical therapy but for now he refused. I’m trying to get him under control and relaxed so that when we come back from out of town we could try to get that going. But he doesn’t wish to be bothered with anybody.”

She added: “His mind is thinking that they’re going to put him back in ‘prison’ — which is what he calls the hospital. He thinks we are just going to take him back to the hospital, but that is not correct.””He was one of the most misunderstood people during that time. Nobody got it. He was so far ahead in terms of the balance between pushing and protecting, [and] had a savant-level comprehension of when those moments were.”