*The stepmother of Venus and Serena Williams has allegedly filed for bankruptcy to save her Florida home.
Lakeisha Williams, 43, is hoping to keep the Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, home she shared with ex-husband Richard Williams. She moved into the home after Richard split from his daughter’s biological mother, Oracene Price, in 2002.
Here’s more from MadameNoire:
According to the Daily Mail, Richard purchased the four-bedroom property for $355,000 back in 1995, the same 10-acre home that he would use to cultivate and prime both Venus and Serena to stardom. Williams had two tennis courts built on the property where he would practice consistently with his daughters.
Following his split from Price, Lakeisha moved into the home after she and the famous coach jumped the broom in 2009, but their happy union turned rocky. Williams suffered from several strokes and began developing early signs of dementia. The former couple later split in 2017 and Williams filed for divorce soon after, citing that his wife allegedly forged her signature “to have his name removed from the property records, leaving just her name on the paperwork,” the Daily Mail noted.
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Lakeisha, who shares a 9-year-old son with Williams, continued to stay in the home amid their divorce, but the property went into foreclosure in 2021.
Lakeisha filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy to save the home from foreclosure and being auctioned off. She is taking legal action to halt the proceedings temporarily.
Per MadameNoire, she claims in court docs that her marriage to Richard is “not irretrievably broken,” and that their sex life is still “going strong, as reported by RADAR.
According to court documents, she wants to pay back the $491,562 home debt over five years. However, Miami Mortgage lender David Simon, who initiated court action against Lakeisha, has fired back against the motion.
“This is a hotly contested case. The secured creditor has a judgment in foreclosure exceeding half a million dollars on a residential home that the debtor owns,” court filings state. “This is the debtor’s second bankruptcy case… if at first you don’t succeed try again. But do it fast, and don’t provide notice to your adversary!”
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