It seems only yesterday that little Alexis had posed in front of the camera with his mother in matching outfits. The red sweaters still remain somewhere in the family home in Brooklyn and so do the photos, but the people seem to have moved on—some to the vast nothingness, and some to continue with an empty existence in their loved ones’ absence. In 2008, on a fateful day, Ohanian’s mother, Anke Ohanian (54) passed away from brain cancer. She fought a valiant battle for three years, but the enemies’ clutches were just a tad bit stronger. And since that day, not a moment goes by when the Reddit co-founder doesn’t wish he could’ve gotten just one more day…

Anke was a brave woman. That’s the one adjective people always remember her by. Under the family’s funeral service announcement, a family friend had commented, “I’m thinking of you at this time and remembering Anke — lots of great memories of a very courageous woman.” However, Ohanian’s adjective has always revolved around “regret”. The 41-year-old opened up about his mother and the things he still misses about her on the ‘Spolitics with Jemele Hill’ podcast on November 7.

“For all the milestones I’ve had since obviously coming back to Reddit, turning it around, IPO, and then just professionally as an investor and building 776. There are so many times I wish I could call her or I wish she could be there to see that debut of Athlos. Then there’s the personal stuff, which obviously I wish even more she could have been a part of,” the entrepreneur stated in a heartbreaking confession. Anke was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, and was a pharmacy technician.

She had met Alexis’ father, Christopher J. Ohanian, in Ireland and immigrated to the United States two years later. The couple married in 1980.

Having said that, Ohanian also revealed that finding wealth at the right time had not just given him financial benefits, but also memories that would last a lifetime. “It was definitely surreal to make more money for 16 months worth of work than my parents would make their entire working lives. It was already kind of crazy. At this point mom had been diagnosed, was already starting her treatments, chemo and everything else. So at the same time, it was incredibly liberating because she got to hear that phone call from me letting her know it all happened. Money was in the bank. Her belief in me was worth it, had paid off and it did give me some of the financial Security to be able to like spend that time. I could get her the best possible care.”

For the unversed: Ohanian had founded Reddit in 2005, shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia. He and his partner, Steve Huffman, sold the company to Condé Nast in 2006 for around $20 million. As expected, the sale was driven by personal reasons, including Ohanian’s mother’s diagnosis. By the time Ohanian hit it big with his businesses, Anke had passed away. After a couple of years away from Reddit, he returned and successfully revitalized the platform in 2010.

He later founded Seven Seven Six and then went on to work alongside women’s sports through Angel City FC. This year, the entrepreneur launched the women’s-only track event, ATHLOS, which aims to highlight women athletes’ stories and create a vibrant fan experience. Today, with a net worth estimated at $150 million, Ohanian also reflected on the lessons from his mother. She gave him

“the best gift,” teaching him that materialistic pleasures mean little…“You get to see someone basically deciding how they’re going to spend their final years and it’s never about stuff. It’s about people, it’s about experiences with those people and those are the two things that she was optimizing for and so to come into that wealth and then also just be fortunate to keep building keep finding success as an investor and a company…All these years later I feel like I’ve avoided a lot of the pain that even peers of mine encountered when they found wealth and didn’t really have any kind of grounding for it,” Serena Williams’ husband concluded.

Over the years, Ohanian has found little ways to honor his mother—he even dedicated a chair for her at the University of Virginia.

“I had enough to dedicate a chair at @UVA for her (Front of the class! Where she’d have sat if she’d gone to college),” his tweet read last year, in which he also shared the engraved message: “Memory of Anke Ohanian…Always a ray of sunshine”. “she’d have LOVED being a grandma (2x!),” the tweet further read. The father of two also started a foundation to commemorate the day of her passing. “My mom died 16 years ago today. This used to be the hardest day of the year for me (Ides of March, go figure) and then 3 years ago I started my family foundation — and found a new meaning to this day — one that I know she’d have been proud of,” the tweet from March this year mentioned. It’s safe to say that Anke definitely would’ve been proud.

Before her passing, Ohanian’s mother used to volunteer in Howard County public schools and for animal welfare, besides working as a pharmacy technician at Howard County General Hospital since 1993.

Ohanian believes these lessons grounded him and provided him a perspective on life. For this, he is eternally grateful to his mother. Yet, he still wishes he could share personal updates with Anke. Now happily married to the WTA star Serena Williams and a father of two daughters, Anke considers them a blessing in disguise.

Alexis is always open to sharing the joys he gets from being a “girl dad”

During a recent conversation with filmmaker Ken Burns, Ohanian reflected on fatherhood. “See, I’ve got two myself. I figured I was destined to have girls, and there’s a part of me that just knew—and it’s awesome to be a girl dad,” he said. His words reveal not only his love for his daughters but also his progressive mindset. Ohanian frequently shares glimpses of how his daughters influence his life.

For instance, he humorously posted a screenshot of his Spotify playlist filled with Taylor Swift songs, captioning it, “I clearly have daughters.” He solidified his Swiftie status by attending Taylor Swift’s Miami Eras Tour with Olympia, proudly wearing a t-shirt that read, “I love Taylor (my daughter made me wear this).”

Ohanian’s love for his daughters truly shines through. On November 7, the US Weekly released an article that mentioned, “Alexis is such a hands-on dad and so caring and supportive. He’s loving being surrounded by women and takes the role of girl dad very seriously.” And this sentiment captures Ohanian’s joy in embracing his unique family dynamic.

Ohanian’s dedication to his daughters goes beyond conventional parenting. He fully invests in nurturing and celebrating the bond he shares with them. Perhaps he finds solace in raising his girls the way his mother Anke would have loved to see. With each moment spent with Serena, Olympia, and Adira, Ohanian exemplifies what it means to be an engaged father, proving that family is at the heart of everything he does.