Serena Williams’ childhood home where she learned to play tennis will be seized to settle her stepmom’s $600K debt – as years-long bankruptcy battle nears conclusion

Serena and Venus Williams’ childhood home, where she learned to play tennis, will be seized to pay off her stepmother’s $600,000 debts after her bankruptcy failed.

It’s the latest development in a years-long legal saga surrounding Williams’ estranged stepmother, Lakeisha Williams, and the $1.4 million Palm Beach home.

The former stripper has racked up debt from a bankrupt trucking company and ‘fast food and frivolities,’ according to legal documents seen by The Sunafter splitting from the tennis stars’ father Richard Williams in 2017.

She has repeatedly filed for bankruptcy to avoid having to pay the debts, but her latest bid failed, meaning Williams’ family home will be sold to pay it all off.

The now crumbling four-bedroom, 10-acre plot has a tennis court in the garden where Richard trained his daughters.

Richard, who has suffered several strokes and suffers from dementia, moved third wife Lakeisha into his then palatial home in a rural part of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, after they married in 2009.

But the couple – who have a son Dylan – split in 2017. Williams then filed for divorce and accused his wife of “stealing” the house, forging his signature to have his name removed from the property documents and leaving only her name on the paperwork.

Lakeisha remained in the home after they separated, but the home was declared bankrupt in 2021 following legal action filed by Miami mortgage lender David Simon.

Since then, she has filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times to delay the execution; all bids have now failed.

Lakeisha has consistently missed a $10,000 per month repayment plan owed to lender Simon, with the debt capped at $620,000.

Now, Judge Mindy Mora has reportedly dismissed her third bankruptcy bid without prejudice, meaning she will lose legal protection and the house will be sold.

Most of the proceeds from the sale will go towards paying off her debt to Simon, with some of the money distributed among twenty other creditors.

Richard bought the house in 1995 for $355,000 with Venus and Serena’s mother, ex-wife Oracene Price, as a training camp for the eventual stars.

He had two tennis courts built and ruthlessly trained his then-teenage daughters to sports stardom with his one-man coaching mission. Williams and Oracene divorced in 2002.

In 2022 bankruptcy filings seen by DailyMail.com, Lakeisha said, among other things, she owes the Palm Beach County tax collector $2,697.55 for 2021 property taxes and the IRS $7,600.

Lakeisha also listed a total net worth of $682,923.43, according to the paperwork.

Of that, $588,197 is the home which she has stated is the “current value of the entire property,” although real estate websites value it at around $1.4 million.

Despite all the debt and an appeal for financial leniency, Lakeisha listed her monthly income as $15,972.93.

This consists of $9,671.73 reported under net income from rental property or a business, $5,500 from ‘family support payments’ and $801 from social security.

Her monthly expenses are listed as a much more modest amount of $2,542, leaving her with $13,430.73, according to the documents.

Lakeisha’s reported income is in stark contrast to her apparent financial problems and the dilapidated state of Williams’ previously beautiful home where she still lives.

DailyMail.com visited the sprawling pile in 2022, located at the end of a dirt road in an exclusive community dominated by large and immaculate equestrian properties, and it immediately looks out of place.

Instead of the pristine property lines maintained by the neighbors, the entrance has a chipped metal gate and a rickety, dirty white fence.

There are two ponds on either side of the dirt driveway, in one of which a plastic chair has been dumped.

The once imposing white double front door now has significant rust, while the facade of the building above is falling apart.

Seen clearly from the front of the house, the tennis courts where Serena, 40, and Venus, 41, honed their astonishing talents are a sad sight.

They are surrounded by overgrown grass and only one appears to be playable. Even that has rusting spotlights and a net that is drooping and torn.

A neighbor we spoke to pointed to the house and said: ‘It would never be in that condition if Richard was still there. He loved that place.”

The neighbor added: “Richard is a wonderful man. I didn’t want to hear him say a word. We were neighbors for many years. To me, Serena and Venus were just kids, not superstars.”

A previous bid by Lakeisha to declare Chapter 13 bankruptcy, in 2021, failed because the house was deemed uninsurable due to the need for a new roof.