Richard Williams Wife: Meet Oracene Price, His Marriages, and Family Story Explained
If you searched richard williams wife, you’re probably trying to sort out one simple question that isn’t actually simple. Richard Williams was married more than once, and the public tends to focus on the marriage most closely tied to tennis history. The short answer is that Oracene “Brandy” Price is the wife most people mean, because she helped raise and coach Venus and Serena. But Richard’s personal life includes earlier and later marriages too, and the full picture gives better context than a one-line name ever could.
Which “Richard Williams wife” do most people mean?
Most people mean Oracene Price (often called “Brandy”), because she is the mother of Venus and Serena Williams and a key part of the family’s early tennis story. She wasn’t just a supportive spouse who sat in the stands. She played an active role in shaping the girls’ mindset, routines, and discipline, and she has been credited as a coach in her own right.
That said, the phrase “Richard Williams wife” can be confusing because Richard Williams had a first wife before Oracene, and he later married again. So if you’ve seen different names online, it’s not necessarily misinformation—it’s often just incomplete context.
Oracene Price: the wife most connected to the Williams tennis legacy
Oracene Price is widely known as the mother and coach of Venus and Serena Williams. She was born in 1952 and is frequently described as a steady, firm presence in the household—someone who balanced warmth with standards. In the family’s early years, when resources were limited and attention was intense, Oracene’s role mattered because she anchored the day-to-day reality while Richard focused on the big plan.
It’s also important to understand that Oracene came into the marriage with children of her own. She had three daughters from a previous relationship: Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha. That meant the home was not simply “Richard, Oracene, and two tennis kids.” It was a blended family with multiple ages, needs, and responsibilities. Raising a blended family well requires consistency, boundaries, and patience—the unglamorous stuff that rarely makes headlines but shapes how kids grow up.
How Oracene and Richard met, and when they married
Public profiles commonly report that Richard and Oracene met in 1979 and married in 1980. Their timing is a detail people bring up often because it places Oracene right at the beginning of the Williams sisters’ origin story. Venus was born in 1980, and Serena followed in 1981, which means those early years were packed: a young marriage, a blended family, and two babies who would later become global sports icons.
On the outside, it’s easy to romanticize those beginnings. In reality, the early years were likely a blur of logistics: work, practice, school, transportation, safety, and the constant need to protect a family’s focus. It’s one thing to dream big; it’s another to keep your household stable while you chase that dream.
What Oracene did behind the scenes
In many accounts, Oracene is described as the emotional steadiness in the home, with a coaching style that emphasized mental strength and self-respect. That matters because elite sports can distort a child’s sense of identity. When a kid becomes “the talented one,” they can start living for approval and results. A parent who reinforces grounding values—discipline, boundaries, education, and emotional health—can keep talent from becoming a trap.
Oracene has also been described as someone who protected her daughters from being overexposed too early. That protection doesn’t always look like pulling them away from tennis; sometimes it looks like controlling the environment, limiting distractions, and refusing to let other people define your children’s worth. In a sport where young athletes can be treated like investments, that kind of parenting can be the difference between a career and a collapse.
When Richard and Oracene separated and divorced
Richard and Oracene eventually separated, and their divorce was finalized in 2002. By that point, the Williams sisters were already major names, which meant the separation wasn’t simply a private family shift—it became something the public wanted to analyze. But most of what matters in that story is the simplest part: relationships change, and sometimes they end even when the people involved built something historic together.
After the divorce, Oracene generally kept a lower public profile than her daughters, appearing occasionally at major matches and moments. She has not seemed interested in constant publicity, which is one reason curiosity about her has stayed strong. People tend to fill silence with speculation, even when silence is just privacy.
Richard Williams’ first wife: Betty Johnson
Before Oracene, Richard Williams was married to Betty Johnson. Public reporting commonly states that they married in the 1960s and had five children together. Those children are often listed as Sabrina, Richard III, Ronner, Reluss, and Reneeka. Compared with the tennis spotlight around Venus and Serena, Richard’s earlier family life is discussed less, and details are more limited in mainstream coverage.
When people search “Richard Williams wife,” they’re often surprised to learn about Betty Johnson because the popular story begins with “King Richard” and the sisters’ rise. But real lives don’t begin at the moment the cameras arrive. The first marriage is part of Richard’s full timeline, and ignoring it can make the family story feel cleaner than it actually was.
It’s also worth saying this gently: earlier family chapters tend to be sensitive, especially when the internet starts treating relatives like trivia. The most respectful approach is to acknowledge the facts that have been reported without turning private family pain into entertainment.
Richard Williams’ later marriage: Lakeisha Graham
Later in life, Richard Williams married Lakeisha Graham (also known in some coverage as Lakeisha Williams). Their relationship received attention for very different reasons than his marriage to Oracene. It became associated with legal disputes and public claims around divorce proceedings. Reporting on the specifics varies by outlet, and many details have been covered through entertainment news rather than traditional sports reporting, so it’s best approached with caution.
What can be said at a high level is that their marriage and subsequent legal conflict became public, including disputes connected to property and divorce filings. When these stories circulate online, they often get exaggerated into “plot” rather than handled like what they are: complicated legal and personal matters involving real people.
If you’ve seen conflicting statements about whether they were still legally married at certain points, you’re not imagining things. Different reports have described developments in the case in different ways. When the coverage is inconsistent, the safest, most accurate approach is to focus on what is broadly agreed upon (they married, there were divorce filings and disputes) and avoid overconfident claims about every twist.
Why the “wife” question matters in the Williams family story
It’s easy to assume people ask “Richard Williams wife” out of gossip. Sometimes that’s true. But a lot of the time, the question is really about credit and influence. Venus and Serena are two of the most dominant athletes in modern sports, and people want to understand who shaped them.
Richard Williams is known for vision, audacity, and relentless belief. Oracene Price is known for stability, standards, and mental toughness. Those roles are different, but they fit together in a way that helps explain how two girls from a tough environment turned into champions who could handle global pressure. If you remove either parent from the story, it becomes less believable. Great athletes are rarely built by one person alone.
How Oracene’s parenting style differed from Richard’s public image
Richard’s public persona has often been loud: confident statements, dramatic strategy, and a willingness to challenge tennis culture. Oracene’s reputation, by contrast, has often been quiet: firm, direct, not easily impressed, and focused on the long-term health of her kids.
In many families, that balance is the hidden formula. One parent pushes the dream forward. The other parent protects the foundation. The dream gets attention, but the foundation is what keeps it standing when things get stressful. That’s why, even years after their divorce, Oracene remains central to how fans and journalists describe the Williams sisters’ emotional strength.
The blended family reality: more siblings than most fans realize
Another reason the “wife” question keeps coming up is that the Williams family structure is larger than many casual fans assume. Oracene had three daughters before marrying Richard. Richard had children from his earlier marriage. Then Richard and Oracene had Venus and Serena.
That means the story is not simply “two parents raised two tennis kids.” It’s a blended household where different siblings grew up with different experiences, and where attention eventually poured onto two younger daughters in a way that could easily distort family dynamics. Keeping a blended family steady under normal conditions is hard. Keeping it steady when the world is watching is even harder.
Common questions people ask about Richard Williams’ wife
Who was Richard Williams married to when Venus and Serena were kids?
He was married to Oracene Price, the mother of Venus and Serena Williams.
Did Richard Williams and Oracene Price divorce?
Yes. Their divorce was finalized in 2002.
Was Oracene Price also a coach?
Yes. She has been widely described as a coach and a major influence on Venus and Serena’s development, particularly their mindset and discipline.
Did Richard Williams have another wife before Oracene?
Yes. He was previously married to Betty Johnson, and they had children together.
Did Richard Williams marry again after Oracene?
Yes. He later married Lakeisha Graham, and their relationship became associated with public legal disputes in later coverage.
What to take away from the “wife” search
If you only want the name that most people mean, it’s Oracene Price. But if you want the fuller truth, Richard Williams’ marriages reflect different seasons of a complicated life—early family responsibilities, the high-pressure years of building champions, and later-life relationships that drew public attention for reasons unrelated to tennis.
The deeper takeaway is that Oracene’s role deserves clarity. She wasn’t just “Richard Williams’ wife.” She was a mother, a coach, and a stabilizing force in a family that was building something historic under intense pressure. That’s why her name keeps resurfacing, even when the question starts as a simple search query.
image source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/sports/tennis/a-famous-tennis-dad-writes-but-not-about-tennis.html
