Tennis superstar Serena Williams announced she and fiancé Alexis Ohanian were expecting a bundle of joy last week, and an abundance of congratulatory messages spread across the Interwebs.
But sadly, as the glorious news made its rounds, a toss of negativity–or an extremely bad “joke”–was made by Romanian tennis star IIie Nastase.
According to NBC news, Nastase, who is the captain of Romania’s team, is currently under investigation by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after allegedly making ill comments about Williams’ pregnancy during a press conference at the Great Britain and Romania games, Friday.
“Let’s see what color it has,” the 70-year-old was quoted as saying to Romanian and British media, perhaps alluding to the fact that Williams is Black and her fiancé is White. Nastase continued, asking, “Chocolate with milk?”
The ITF was quick to condemn his comments.
“The ITF does not tolerate discriminatory and offensive language and behaviour of any kind. We are aware of alleged comments made by Romanian Captain Ilie Nastase and have begun an immediate investigation so that we have the full facts of the situation before taking further and appropriate action,” the organization said in a statement.
Though, it hasn’t been confirmed that Nastase was speaking directly about Williams’ and Ohanian’s unborn child, the statement did come while Simona Halep, another top player, was speaking about the American tennis champ.
