It’s been 21 years since Serena Williams suffered the biggest loss of her life. Her older sister, Yetunde Price, a registered nurse and Serena and Venus’ personal assistant, was fatally shot in a Los Angeles suburb at just 31. 

However, the years have not dulled the pain for the former No. 1, as she took on the cumbersome task of addressing the heartbreaking incident. 

The latest documentary on the life of Serena Williams, “In the Arena: Serena Williams,”s released on July 10. The first three episodes of the docuseries are now out. In an excerpt released on Instagram, the tennis player recalled her sister and how close they had grown prior to her death, thanks to an injury. “We got so close in those last six months. It was a miracle that I broke my muscle…. We were able to spend so much time together, and it was that I’ll never forget,” said Williams, choking out the words through laughs and tears. Notably, Williams tore the quadriceps tendon in her left knee and underwent surgery in early August in 2003, which kept her away from the courts for many weeks.

But the hardest part, to the former No. 1, was not losing a sister or missing out on the US Open in 2003, but breaking the news to the three kids Price left behind.

“I think the hardest part was telling the kids. I just remember, we stayed by an apartment that time and we just played Uno,” Williams recalled, talking about the two boys, Jeffrey and Jair, 11 and 3 years old at the time, and one girl, Justus, then 5. The children later moved to Florida to be raised by Serena and Venus’ mother Oracene. 

The documentary further dig deep into the sisterly bond in Episode 3, titled, “Point of No Return”, and discussed how Serena was overcome with “grief and depression leading her to drop out of the top 100 rankings”.

Notably, Price’s murder took place yards away from the neighborhood courts where the superstar sisters learnt how to play tennis. She was in a car with her then-boyfriend, Rolland Wormley, when the perpetrator, 23-year-old Robert Edward Maxfield, accidentally shot her, mistaking her for someone else. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2006, and was sentenced to 15 years in jail. 

Wormley says he vividly remembers how Price loved him despite his background. “She was more down to earth than anything,” the boyfriend said, who was allegedly out on parole for gun and drug offenses at the time.

As for the Williams family, they’ve made sure never to forget Price’s legacy. Venus and Serena set up the Yetunde Price Resource Center, a non-profit organization aimed at offering free programs and resources to trauma-affected individuals and family in the Compton area. “We definitely wanted to honor our sister’s memory because she was a great sister; she was our oldest sister, and, obviously, she meant a lot to us,” Serena said then, according to The Root, before adding, “And it meant a lot to us, to myself and to Venus and my other sisters as well, Isha and Lyndrea, that we’ve been wanting to do something for years in memory of her, especially the way it happened, a violent crime.”  

One thing’s clear: Yetunde Price was the glue who held the family together, and a lot rested on her shoulders.

Yetunde Price was famous, but not fame thirsty

Despite being related to some of the most famous athletes in the world, Yetunde Price made sure never to let the fame get to her head. A regular fixture in the stands during her sisters’ matches, Price liked to fund her own travel, no matter how expensive. Reportedly, the older half-sister even refused any handouts from either sister and only accepted money if she earned it. She took up a role as their personal assistant, managing their emails, faxes and other personal and business affairs.

Price was also notoriously discreet about her identity. Her friends only came to know she was related to the sisters when they saw her sitting beside Serena Williams on television. “I called two days later and said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’,” Yetunde’s friend and neighbor Kameesha Keece, recalled asking, before being told, “I wanted to make friends for who I am.”

Yetunde Price shared an adorable bond with her sisters. In fact, Serena admitted that Price changed her diapers when she was a kid. And this close bond was in fact admitted by Price herself in an interview with People in August 2003, shortly before her demise. Speaking about whether Venus and Serena’s fame put the spotlight away from her within the family and if she had regrets about it, Price denied any such thing. “They’re still my sisters,” she said. “We don’t get into the fame thing too much when we’re all together as a family.”

While her departure is still a challenging task for Serena to cope with, the bond they shared still resonates within the family.