JUST IN: Stephen A. Smith is defending his criticism after Serena Williams surprised the crowd with her unexpected appearance at the 2025 Super Bowl LIX. Get the ESPN personality’s full reaction to her halftime show…

Stephen A. Smith is defending his criticism of Serena Williams‘ surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. The ESPN commentator faced backlash after calling out the Tennis superstar for her cameo, where she’s seen crip walking as the rapper performed his Drake diss track “Not Like Us.” Williams and Drake previously dated.

“If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass, ’cause clearly you don’t belong with me,” Smith said in Monday’s episode of ESPN’s First Take.

Social media users quickly criticized the sports analyst, including @MediumSizeMeech, who wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “A 57 year old UNMARRIED man with a receding hairline who has never BEEN married mind you, saying he would divorce our greatest living athlete who has been happily married for 8 years to her very rich and loving husband—keep quiet forehead.”

Smith responded to the tweet, doubling down on his comments about Williams’ halftime show appearance, writing, “Please go back and look at exactly what I said. I was talking overall from a man’s perspective — highlighting what most men would think.”

“I didn’t utter a single disrespectful word about Serena,” he continued. “No issues with folks getting upset of literal serious stuff one’s pissed about. This doesn’t qualify peeps. Come on. We were joking around on @FirstTake. Damn y’all! It’s not that serious.”

Though Smith wouldn’t want his significant other trolling their ex, Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian — the pair share two children — seemed perfectly fine with her cameo. He wrote on X Sunday, “Pretty fantastic halftime show.”

The Reddit cofounder added Monday, “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows…. This is bigger than the music.” Williams faced backlash in 2012 after she crip walked after defeating Maria Sharapova at the London Olympics.

“I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon,” Williams said in a video posted to X following her halftime show cameo. “I would’ve been fined. It was all love.”