Serena Williams refuses to be away from her children for more than 24 hours.

The 44-year-old tennis legend is mother to two daughters, Olympia, eight, and Adira, two, with her husband Alexis Ohanian and Serena has revealed she is determined to be a "present parent" so she will never be parted from her kids for longer than a full day and night.

During an appearance on the IMO podcast, Serena explained: "I really try to be a present parent. And sometimes that's hard, especially with the lives that we live; it's very hard to be present, but I try to be extremely present.

"I'm never gone more than 24 hours, ever. I didn't leave Olympia until she was 6 for 24 hours. That may have been a little extreme, but that's who I am."

Serena - who retired from tennis in 2022 - went on to insist she wants to be around for her children as much as she possibly can.

She added: "I show up as much as I can every single day for the girls. Because I feel like they mean the most to me, and I feel they need me, and they need to make sure, I wanna raise my children.

"I'm a person that's raising my kids, and that's teaching them how I want them to live and how I want them to be."

Serena previously opened up about her hopes for Olympia''s future and revealed she doesn't want her daughter to follow in her footsteps by becoming a competitive tennis player.

She told Vogue magazine in 2018: "I would hate her to have to deal with comparisons or expectations. It's so much work, and I've given up so much.

"I don't regret it, but it's like [1998 movie] Sliding Doors: Go through a different door and lead a different life. I'd like her to have a normal life. I didn't have that."

She added: "I think sometimes women limit themselves. I'm not sure why we think that way, but I know that we're sometimes taught to not dream as big as men, not to believe we can be a president or a CEO, when in the same household, a male child is told he can be anything he wants.

"I'm so glad I had a daughter. I want to teach her that there are no limits."