The 41-year-old tech entrepreneur said his diagnosis ‘was quite a surprise.’
Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, has been diagnosed with Lyme disease. The 41-year-old Reddit co-founder and father of two opened up about his health in a series of social media posts on Tuesday, revealing that he was diagnosed with the potentially debilitating infection after getting full-body scans.
“Doing a full battery of health scans, tests, etc, and found out I have lyme disease,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Wild. No symptoms, thankfully, but gonna treat. Good cholesterol is too low. Bad cholesterol is just OK. Gotta work on that. On the plus-side: 822 ng/dL total + 162 ng/dL free testosterone.”
According the CDC, Lyme disease is a “bacterial infection spread to people through the bite of blacklegged ticks.” It is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and rarely, Borrelia mayonii. Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans, and if left untreated, the infection “can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.”
Ohanian admitted that he was caught off-guard by the diagnosis. Explaining that he has “a loved one who had it a few years back, showed tons [of] symptoms etc and just couldn’t figure it out until they tested him for it and then found it (treated it successfully, too),” he said that he spends “so little time in the wilderness and Northeast.”
Amid his diagnosis, Ohanian is keeping in good spirits. He told his followers that he was “gonna grab some antibiotics – can’t keep me down, tick!”
After sharing he has Lyme disease, Ohanian, who recently joined his wife and their daughter Olympia at the 2024 ESPY Awards, received plenty of well wishes. Responding to the post, one person wrote, “Sending you so much love and prayers, Mr. Ohanian. Wishing you all the best and a full recovery.” Another follower wrote, “Get well soon! So glad you found it early.”
Ohanian is just the latest celebrity to open up about their battle with Lyme disease. Celebrities including Yolanda, Bella and Anwar Hadid, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Ben Stiller, Kelly Osbourne, and Alec Baldwin have also come forward with their own stories.
According to the CDC, more than 470,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, and most infections “can be treated with 10-14 days of antibiotics.”
