Harrison Butker has issued an announcement in response to the dig Serena Williams made in the direction of him on the 2024 ESPYs.

“I believed Mrs. Williams was an awesome host and applaud her for utilizing her platform to precise her beliefs on quite a lot of subjects,” Butker, 28, stated on Friday, July 11, by way of NBC Information. “Sports activities are alleged to be the good unifier and at an occasion devoted to celebrating a various group of women and men who’ve completed nice feats, she used it as a possibility to disinvite these with whom she disagrees from supporting fellow athletes.”

The response comes after Serena, 42, alongside her sister, Venus Williams, and actress Quinta Brunson, made pointed remarks about Butker in the course of the ESPYS ceremony on July 11.

Addressing girls’s sports activities, Venus, 44, acknowledged, “So, go forward and luxuriate in girls’s sports activities such as you would some other sports activities, as a result of they’re sports activities.” Serena then added, “Besides you, Harrison Butker. We don’t want you,” with Brunson, 34, chiming in, “In any respect. Like, ever,” to the viewers’s laughter.

Although Butker attended the occasion, his response was not captured on digital camera.

The feedback from Serena and Brunson got here in response to Butker’s graduation speech at Benedictine School in Might. In his tackle, Butker recommended that whereas some girls may pursue profitable careers, “nearly all of you might be most enthusiastic about your marriage and the kids you’ll carry into this world.”

“I need to converse on to you briefly as a result of I feel it’s you, the ladies, who’ve had probably the most diabolical lies instructed to you,” the soccer participant stated on the time. “What number of of you might be sitting right here now, about to cross this stage, and are fascinated with all of the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your profession?”

He added, “A few of it’s possible you’ll go on to guide profitable careers on the planet, however I might enterprise to guess that almost all of you might be most enthusiastic about your marriage and the kids you’ll carry into this world.”

He emphasised that his spouse, Isabelle Butker, would say her life really started when she embraced her roles as a spouse and mom, calling being a “homemaker” one of the crucial necessary titles.

The speech sparked vital backlash, drawing responses from celebrities similar to Maren Morris, Robert Griffin III,Whoopi Goldberg, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.

Reflecting on the controversy on the Regina Caeli Academy Braveness Beneath Fireplace Gala later that month, Butker commented on the extraordinary scrutiny of his spiritual beliefs.

“If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it’s now,” he claimed.

Regardless of the blended reactions, Butker hopes to “embolden” different Catholics to be courageous and converse out.

“Ultimately, being brave begins with the small issues. Being disliked and mischaracterized by some is nothing in comparison with discovering your self in a lion’s den,” he stated.