Serena Williams opens up about 31-pound weight loss using GLP-1 medication: 'Something I suffered with'

"No matter what I did - Running, walking. I would walk for hours because they say that's good. I literally was playing a professional sport - and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, 'OK, I have to try something different.'"

Williams said she decided to be open about her journey to destigmatize the use of GLP-1 medication for weight loss.  

"A misconception is that it's a shortcut," she told "Today." "As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn't get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place. And, believe me, I don't take shortcuts."

"I've never felt that pressure to maintain a certain appearance," she said. "I always felt comfortable at any size, whether I was a lot heavier or not. I do feel like my body didn't like me at that weight. I had pain in my joints and pain in different areas just because of the extra weight that I'm not used to carrying since I had children."

"But the size I was before, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just not what I wanted to have. I just knew that I wanted to be where I personally felt comfortable."

Fox News Digital's Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.